The REAL Story Of The Abbey Gate Afghanistan Withdrawal | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 239

Summary

Unsubscribe Podcast Episode 239 Summary

The REAL Story Of The Abbey Gate Afghanistan Withdrawal

Host: UnsubscribePodcast (Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician)
Guest: Tyler Vargas Andrews
Date: November 16, 2025

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Main Theme:

A first-hand, unfiltered account of the Abbey Gate bombing during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, told by Marine sniper Tyler Vargas Andrews, who survived the attack. The episode covers Tyler's journey through the military, his experiences and leadership, the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, the events surrounding the Abbey Gate tragedy, and the aftermath—including his injuries and the lack of governmental accountability.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Veteran Month, Community, and Giving Back

• The Unsubscribe team celebrates Veteran’s Month, promoting fundraising for veterans’ nonprofits (03:13).
• Notable organizations: Independence Fund, Boot Campaign, Gary Sinise Foundation (06:09).
• Quote (Tyler on Gary Sinise):
  “Gary himself is one of the most incredible Americans… He’s been there for me every step of the way in my family.” (06:17)

2. Tyler’s Marine Journey: From Enlistment to Sniper Team

• Enlisted in 2017, Stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA (11:25).
• Early missteps: non-judicial punishment (altered ID incident) led to a pivotal “scared straight” moment (15:14, 21:02).
• Overcame adversity:
  “Honestly, you know, I don't know. I can't say that, you know, my trajectory in the Marine Corps would have necessarily been different, but I was definitely like, okay, like, I got to make a name for myself…” (25:21)
• Rose to team leader, earned meritorious promotions, selected for sniper platoon.

3. Deployment Stories: Training and Military Culture

• First deployment: “booze cruise” with 31st MEU (36:18)—Japan, Korea, Australia (cultural experiences, liberty, and infamous Australia stories).
• Challenges and camaraderie: losing gear, “mass punishment,” and ‘corrective’ boxing matches (33:42).
• Harsh realities:
  “If you can’t handle getting screamed at or getting punched in the face, you probably shouldn’t be there, you know…” (34:39)

4. Lead-up to Afghanistan Withdrawal

• Tyler’s team was subjected to uncertainty and repeated changes before deployment to CENTCOM area (49:36).
• Deployed to Kuwait (hot, oppressive), then Saudi Arabia for “show of force” (51:13).
• Training and “hurry up and wait” cycles, plus vivid descriptions of desert hardships (dust storms, living conditions).

5. Kabul & The Abbey Gate Events

• Sniper teams split and repositioned throughout the region; sudden orders to deploy during the evacuation (65:03).
• Arrival in Kabul: chaos, confusion, expectation of combat, overwhelmed by humanitarian tragedy instead (75:44).
• Reality of the evacuation:
  • Tens of thousands desperate at Abbey Gate: “By the end of those 10 days...that’s how many people there were… people just holding babies over their heads, screaming at the top of their lungs…” (83:32)
  • Marines overwhelmed by crowds; crowd control impossible (85:11).
  • Taliban executing civilians visible from Marines’ position. “I took pictures and videos of bodies and people being lined up to be executed and reported back on it and dropped it to intel. They're like, 'Nope...not our problem.'” (80:47)
• Impactful cultural shock for Marines: encountering real, desperate suffering; the limits placed by political and military leadership (82:01).

6. Day of the Bombing: Aug 26, 2021

• Advanced warning of suicide bomber, denied permission to engage (91:29).
• Repeated intelligence reports ignored; standoff distance decreased until crowds pressed right onto the base (93:45).
• Immediate aftermath:
  • “Flash bang, and I get bitch slapped by the hand of God. Just like, massive wave of pressure hits me...It was just instantly—200 people killed. Instantly.” (106:56)
• Tyler’s personal injuries:
  • “My whole stomach got ripped open. I lost my left kidney, left testicle exploded. I lost 140-157 centimeters of large and small intestine...took 150 ball bearings into my body. Nothing hit my face.” (115:24)
  • Dragged out with a riot shield, stabilized thanks to fellow Marines and corpsman Jorge (118:56).
• Team’s actions: improvised medical care, and triaged casualties in horrible conditions.

Notable Quotes:

• “I knew right away. I was like, I just got blown up.” (113:39)
• “I remember laying out there on the ground and it was, like, almost peaceful… Like ‘I've done my best.’” (118:56)
• “He grabs my bolt cutters and he just sprinted out there for me, cut a hole in the fence, cut off the casualty carrying distance by like 100 yards, which is significant when seconds matter…” (118:56)
• “I was the only one at Walter Reed… like, how is this guy alive?” (126:23)

7. Reflections and Aftermath

• Tyler credits his survival to physical fitness: “The only reason...I survived was because how physically fit I was at the point of injury.” (123:12)
• Government and military's refusal to take accountability; threats about discussing the real story (128:43).
• Importance of truth, leadership, and honoring fallen friends (134:56).
• Message to Americans: “It's easy to preach you're oppressed from a free country, but you can't preach you're oppressed from an oppressed country...” (103:32)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Gary Sinise:
  “He remembers more things about my life going on than I do. I'm like, damn. Oh, you're right. I did have that going on. But he'd be like, how's your little brother doing? How's your little sister doing? ...He was there for my mom when I was in the ICU at Walter Reed...” (08:19)

• On the nature of war:
  “It's a war fighting organization. If you can't handle getting screamed at or getting punched in the face, you probably shouldn't be there…” (34:39)

• On military leadership failure:
  “If we don't learn from the things that happen, how are we going to get better? How are we going to get stronger? How are we going to get more lethal?” (130:06)

• Plea for Accountability:
  “The truth is politically inconvenient. But...someone with way more rank…should have come forth and told the truth...it was just like, no, it's not this great thing. It's just what should be done...it's a responsibility to my friends who aren't here anymore.” (133:13)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [06:09] - Nonprofit partnerships, Gary Sinise Foundation
• [11:25] - Tyler's enlistment and Camp Pendleton
• [15:14; 21:02] - Early Marine Corps trouble; NJP and “scared straight”
• [33:42-34:39] - Harsh discipline, mass punishment; military “corrections”
• [36:18-44:10] - “Booze cruise”: First deployment, Japan/Korea/Australia stories
• [49:36] - Lead-up to CENTCOM/Afghanistan assignment
• [65:03] - Afghanistan withdrawal/evacuation; reality on the ground
• [83:32-85:11] - Humanitarian disaster, massive crowds at Abbey Gate
• [91:29-93:45] - Warnings ignored, standoff distance shrinks
• [106:56-121:53] - The bombing, Tyler’s injury, triage, personal account
• [123:12-126:20] - Survival, medical aftermath, “too fit to die”
• [128:43-130:06] - Government’s lack of accountability, pressure to cover up
• [134:56-137:30] - Reflections on survivor's guilt, duty to tell the story, perspective

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Tone and Language

A blend of raw honesty, dark humor, and camaraderie that is signature to military circles. The show combines candid storytelling, emotionally charged moments, and frequent irreverence, with all the hosts and the guest keeping things authentic and sometimes biting.

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Summary

This episode gives an unparalleled, gut-wrenching window into both the noble and chaotic aspects of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Tyler Vargas Andrews’s testimony recounts not only the bureaucracy and failures that led to tragedy at Abbey Gate, but also pays tribute to the selfless acts, leadership, and resilience of those on the ground. Through comedy and candor, the Unsubscribe team helps Tyler highlight both the cost of war and the need for truth and accountability—making this essential listening for anyone seeking the untold stories behind the headlines.

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Find Tyler:

• Instagram: @whistlingdeath
• Bladesmith business and merch: tyrantdesign.com

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For veterans, those who serve, and civilians alike, this is an episode about courage—in life, loss, and telling stories that must be told.

Transcript

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

From the director of It Comes a horrifying new story set in 1960s Derry, Maine, a story that explores the origin of Pennywise the Clown. Get ready to go back where it all began. The new HBO original series welcome to Derry is now streaming on HBO Max on the IT welcome to Derry Official Podcast. Join hosts Mark Bernardin and Princess Weeks as they unpack each episode after it airs on HBO Max. HBO's It's welcome to Derry podcast walks you back down the street of Derry 27 years before the Losers Club first formed and pulls you down into the sewers to dig into the history, the lore and the horror of what makes Derry, Maine's most sinister suburb. On each episode, you'll hear from show creators like Andy and Barbara Muschietti, plus cast and crew members as they talk about the making of the show. New podcast episodes drop every week after the episode airs on HBO Max. Stream new episodes of HBO's IT welcome to Derry Sundays on HBO Max and listen to the IT welcome to Derry Official Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. Flash bang and I get bitch slapped by the hand of God. Just instantly, 200 people killed. I knew right away. I was like, I just got blown up.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you for your service.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Thank you. It was a blast. Is luck contagious Australia? They don't like gays, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not gay.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

A kangaroo rips your arm off. That's where I don't like.

[Brandon Herrera]

There we go. Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. Brandon, his hair is fabulous. Donut a dog. Joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Welcome to Unsubscribe.

[Brandon Herrera]

Happy Veterans Day. I know we missed it because the scheduling, but we just wanted to say happy Veterans Day to each and every one of you. Truly appreciate all of you that made that sacrifice. Thank you.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Eli.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why are you talking? Easy, because we're trying to raise money to donate it all at the end of the month. Get a TBI Friday shirt or the sun will come out tomorrow, unfortunately. Drink echelon.com this also goes towards that goal. Any extra items over on the unsubscribe [e-mail] will be going towards these amazing veterans and nonprofits. And you're entered to win. What a golden ticket to see one of the last two shows. Travel and hotels covered by us. Some sweet Turtle beach headgear, some cash prizes. Also, we have two really cool things. By the time you see this message, the unsubbed side zips these guys. Oh yeah, they're at the store now. A portion does go towards the Nonprofits also sneak this in show on the road. It's her YouTube channel. She just started. Go check it out. Total from when we started doing this in 2018, we get to say we've donated over a million dollars. We always will give back as I thank you for making any of this possible. I am blown away by what we've done already and I can't wait to see that final number at the end of the month. Thank you. Enjoy this amazing episode. Ah, I love this one so much. Cheers, y'. All.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

How much you have to donate to get the pass on?

[Brandon Herrera]

Right here.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I should have known better. Let me hide this one.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, you can drink that one cuz it's way better tasting. You just have both on the table. Look like an alcoholic. On the count of three, everyone.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Let me lift it up a little bit. Hold on.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh my God.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No. I got your attic.

[Brandon Herrera]

I got one arm.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

What's his name? We're all too sorry. I just. I need the center of attention on me.

[Brandon Herrera]

3, 2, 1.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the unsubscribed podcast. I am joined today by Eli Doubletap, Tyler Vargas Andrews, Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here. My God, that's weird doing that not in front of 2,000 people. It's kind of nice. It's quiet in here. It's nice and calm.

[Brandon Herrera]

This would be way more embarrassing if there was 2,000 seats in there. Just. Just show instead of watching. We're like, well, we retire next week.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Why did you need this menu? Do you guys get nervous when you go on stage? Oh, yeah, dude. That's what the alcohol is for. Yeah, I don't really get the nerves too much anymore. No. Yeah, it's. You're just professional politician now.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I'm gonna like this one. That hurts.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Just twisted a little bit deeper in the ribs. No, it's the, like the first show. Like we got a little bit of like the adrenaline and stuff, but I think now we're just comfortable with what we're doing. Yeah, I'm getting way more comfortable. That's awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

Used to be I take a nap before every show.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

How long?

[Brandon Herrera]

Like 20 minutes, 30 minutes.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Eli can straight up nap anywhere.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that old man in the military.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Say that old man in that military just sitting again.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's up, buddy? Hey, welcome. I mean, we were excited. This is part of the veteran month, so this entire November, it's like, hey, let's do these episodes with some veterans other than Brandon.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, fuck it.

[Brandon Herrera]

And just. And always we're doing something with giving back to the community. So, like, hey, this entire month will be like, all these shirts.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I said the word community.

[Brandon Herrera]

Damn it. You're like, what the.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Is this a waste of the bottom?

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, I'm so confused right now.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Community became such a buzzword on the podcast that we made it a drinking game. Very well. You just said it. You just said it again.

[Brandon Herrera]

There we go. But we'll be doing shirts like this. I love this one.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That is Fridays.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then the other ones. But all 100% of the profits for the shirts go. We just donate it.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's awesome, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

Four or five nonprofits, which now we have a good few. We're excited with the ones we're working with. This.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

A couple new ones, too.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Yeah. Some help you.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. Help a lot of people.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Who are you working with Right now?

[Brandon Herrera]

We have Independence Fund, Boot Campaign, and now with Gary Sneeze Foundation.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

Which we're stoked for.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. No, that's incredible. Gary Sinise Foundation. I mean, we spoke about it briefly at lunch, but Gary himself is one of the most incredible Americans I've ever met personally, and he's been there for me every step of the way in my family. But, yeah, I mean, they. They just do an incredible amount for the country as a whole, so it's pretty awesome. A lot of people for. For something else, though, right? Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Do you make him say that?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Lieutenant D. I brought you some ice cream. And in. In their headquarters in Franklin, they've actually got, like, the bench from Forrest Gump with, no shit, box of chocolates on it. Yeah. The whole backdrop and everything. That's cool. So you can take a photo there if you go visit. But so you. You actually told me something earlier that I didn't know because I had always heard the story with Gary Sinise that what got him involved in, you know, working with veteran nonprofits and, like, really, like, getting him passionate about it was playing the role of Lieutenant Dan. Yeah. So that. That. I mean, that's. I would say that's what skyrocketed everything for him. But his history with working, working with, working for veterans and the American community as a whole. I mean, it's. It started when he was 17 or 18 years old on Broadway, and Vietnam vets were coming back from overseas, you know, physically and mentally wounded, and. Zero support. Yeah, just zero support. And he was hearing their stories, sharing their stories, working with them, you know, on stage in theater and whatnot, and just became an advocate from. From a very, very Young age, but he's. I mean, it's just multiplied, I mean, a million fold. I don't even know. But he's. He's an awesome, awesome, awesome individual. Personally, I've had, you know, quite a number of conversations just with him, one on one, and he has been nothing but genuine. It's awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

As you were saying, he's like, you know, it's a good dude and truly cares because he texts you every couple of months. It's like one of those things that. It's a veteran thing, I thought, where it's like, I got to do my homie checkup. Just like, hey, how you doing? What are you doing? How's your mental health?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, he remembers more things about my life going on than I do. I'm like, damn. Yeah. Oh, you're right. I did have that going on. But he'd be like, how's your. How's your little brother doing? How's your little sister doing? You know, how's your mom? And, yeah, he's. He's been awesome. He was there for my mom when I. When I was in the ICU at Walter Reed and I woke up and inpatient one day. And she was like, hey, Gary Sinise wants to give you a phone call and FaceTime you. When you're, you know, when you're ready. And I was like, who is that? And she was like, gary Sinise. And I was like, mom, I don't know. I don't know what you're saying right now. And she was like, lieutenant Dan. And then I was like, oh, no fucking way. I was like, are you serious? I was like, absolutely. I was on the phone with him like an hour later and just like, hey, man, I'm here for you as, you know, as a friend and your family. Anything you need, let me know. So it's been been that way ever since, but it's nice to know, like, those. Those are the. The types like Keanu Reeves and stuff like that. It's like, okay. They are actually that nice person. Pretty unbelievable. I mean, you gotta have a ton of mental capacity to meet that. I mean, you guys know, too, but meeting that many people and just having to be the most real, authentic version of yourself all the time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fakeness will come through. If you try to do that the entire time, it's gonna peek its head and then go down in a fireball. Now you.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

My favorite thing to hear real quick is just like, when people meet us or like, people like that, they're just like, oh, yeah, you're exactly the same in person. It's like, no, it's not. Because, like, oh, it's not. Morally. That's not the reason. We're just too lazy to have a personality. Like a fake personality. Having one's harder than a lot of work.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's a blast. Yay. Which again, shout out to everyone that's making the live shows. They are, as you see on Social, they are a blast. A lot of work. But it is a really good time. And you guys are showing up and making it fucking so much fun. Just with the crowd interaction, yelling.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Sometimes too much yelling.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Do you guys. San Antonio. What the fuck? You yell too much. Not during, like, jokes.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, the hecklers all the time.

[Brandon Herrera]

But. But even then, I appreciate the Reddit because they were. You guys check each other too. You're like, hey, don't do that. Which is awesome to hear. It's like, hey, guys, I understand now. I can tell a lot of us are autistic and don't know how to do interactions.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Social cues.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I mean. Cause it's like, yeah, we understand. Like, you're having a good time, but, like, when you're shouting over the jokes, the guy next to you is not happy. Yeah, he's missing out here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody, what are you. What'd you do yesterday? What, after I got back? Yeah. Decompressed. Yeah, There we go.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Hey. But anyway, yeah, then I was. Man, I've never seen your mic box go red before.

[Brandon Herrera]

It says exceeded.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's kind of warning, rest in peace headphones users.

[Brandon Herrera]

But, yeah, it's still super. Appreciate all you coming out now. Mr. Tyler, you are military? Former military. What year did you join?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I enlisted in 2017.

[Brandon Herrera]

Give the low down.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

All right. I'm a Marine Corps veteran, enlisted in 2017 out of Northern California. Grew up in Northern California and I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. I don't think there's probably a better place to be stationed as a Marine. A better, worse place. You have access to everything and a lot of fun, great time. When you say everything. Everything. Yeah, pretty much everything. I think, man. Probably 20, 20, 19, 20 into 2020, we had like 10 dudes all at once get busted in a cocaine and steroid ring. Yeah, unfortunately, some dude got beat up and they moved. Unfortunately, they got busted. Yeah, yeah, they moved all the grunts to where all the pogues live. And yeah, as you can expect, it was like 100 infantry marines, 200 infantry marines versus everyone else who wasn't. And a lot of. A lot of things happened there. But, yeah, no, I enlisted in 2017, I went to Boot Camp MCRD San Diego. And then I was an 0311. I just, you know, I knew, I knew that being. I grew up. I didn't grow up seeing the, you know, dress blues Marine fighting the lava monster and the dragon, but I saw like the Recon Marines coming out of the water. And, you know, I had no idea that Recon Marines and SF and MARSOC were all different things. I was just like, yeah, I want to be Special Operations or I want to be Special Forces. And then my recruiter's like, you're a idiot. And he was. I ended up scoring like a 90 or 91 on my ASVAB. And he was like, you're not going to be a grunt. And I was like, that's the. The only thing I want to do. Yeah. And so went that route. I went to School of Infantry west at Camp Pendleton as well once I got out, and that was in early 2018. And then went to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. Second Battalion, 1st Marines. I was a boot, very junior Marine. That's, you know, the derogatory phrase, but the proper phrase is, you know, being a boot. And I got NJP'd pretty early on. So what'd you do? Yeah, non judicial punishment. So what'd you do? Dui. What was that? No, no, that was crazy. That's always. Everyone's first, like, no, no, not. It really. It was really dumb. It just comes out swaying like, oh, yeah, I got this, this. Oh, you beat your wife?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, dude.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it was manslaughter. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, no, I. That poor family of five, we were out in the Gaslight district in San Diego. Definitely not underage drinking. And I allowed one of my friends to alter my I.D. and so, you know, I was born in 98. We made it look like a. Like a three, I think is what it was. And I never used it. Like, all the. All the bars down in San Diego, all the clubs, like, they know fucking. That's Marine, you know, central. So, like, they let you in as long as you're not being a jackass. And so I never used it to, like, buy alcohol underage. Never even used it to get in the club. Underage. We were always able to get in. But right when I got to the fleet, so I got out of infantry school, like boot camp infantry school, got to the fleet. We were there like two months, two and a half months before our unit got back from their last deployment. And so it was just a lot of like, you know, hard training and whatnot, waiting for the unit to get back. And then they get back and you're fresh Marines to the fleet and everyone fucking hates you. Yeah, everyone fucking hates you already. Just, you know, it's tradition. It's what it's supposed to be.

[Brandon Herrera]

Especially if they're just getting back from there. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And so, you know, they came back from their. Their war torn country of Japan on their udp.

[Brandon Herrera]

Jerry, Bro, you. You just watch an anime for eight hours a day. Shut up.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

But yeah, they. They pulled us all in. You know, we're doing the whole, like, running around, being. Being a young junior Marine, learning things, getting things thrown at you physically and, you know, hypothetically, I guess. But they pulled all of us in one day. And two of my buddies, there was probably about 10 to 12 of us that had had their IDs altered. And two of my buddies at the time, fucking dumbasses, went to pass an id and they're like, their chips and their cards, like to, you know, to put them in. The little CAC reader stopped working. And so they needed to get new IDs. We're doing like the annual training and whatnot. And the passing ID place on base confiscated their IDs. And they're like, yeah, you guys altered your IDs. And they had drawn in Sharpie on the back of their IDs to thinking that that was going to cover their asses and make it look like they hadn't with their id. So they got them confiscated, called the battalion, pulled all the military IDs they with. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then they went to.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, they drew in Sharpie on them. Yeah, and so that is federal property. Yeah, and. And so they pulled it. They pulled us in and confiscated all of our IDs. And one of our staff sergeants at the time was like, looking out for us. He didn't. He pulled out like two more IDs out of the stack and he was handing them back out. And our gunny at the time was like, let me see those id, Staff Sergeant. And he was like, I already checked him, gunny. And he was like, I want to check them. And he was like, I already checked him, gunny. And he was like, give me the IDs. And he took the IDs from him and pulled out like eight more and handed out all these IDs. And there's like, you know, 10 of us standing there. He's like, all right, if you didn't get your ID back, CDS in the company office. And so we all go to the company office and Everyone immediately just like, you know, we're like, we're. This is the end of the world, worst thing ever. Like this. How's. How did this happen? And everyone but me accepted the njp, like on the spot. They signed the paperwork, they got the two weeks of restriction, slap on the wrist and like, you know, nothing, nothing really happened, like some promotion restriction. I. My mom was a family law attorney my whole life growing up. And she was always like, if you ever get in any trouble legally, like civilian or military, request a lawyer. Like, no matter what it is, request a lawyer. So I'm like, I want to speak to a lawyer. And they're like, you what? You want to speak to a lawyer? And I was like, yeah, I want to speak to a lawyer. And so I had to wait like three days and to get an appointment on main side. And so I'm just. I spend the next three days fucking cleaning the cp, getting screamed out by every single person in the battalion. And they finally get over to the, to the lawyer and he was like, brand new, fresh Lieutenant jag. And he was like, hey, well, your NJP paperwork says that you altered your id, so you didn't. Your. Your friend did, you know, according to your story. So, you know, go in denying JP and like, it's going to get fucking sent away. So I followed his advice to go in there and deny jp. Battalion Sergeant major calls me up to his office, super thick, you know, Mexican accent. He's like, you think, you think NCIS isn't going to figure this shit out if I can. And I'm a stupid sergeant major and I'm like, stand there, parade rest, like, holy fuck. Like, my life's over. I've been in the Marine Corps for eight months. Like, I'm getting kicked out. What the fuck's going on? This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates for multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance and affiliates not available in all states and situations. Prices may vary on how you buy. And he slams my ID down on the table, opens his drawer and he pulls out a razor blade and he throws in the desk. And he was like, have some fucking integrity. And he sits there and he takes the razor blade and he's like scratching it back and forth across the spot that was altered. And it's like getting stuck in that one spot. The ID didn't look bad, but, you know, I was born in 98, like, saying 93, it was, you know, messed with. And so he's like. It's like getting stuck. And he was like, if I can figure this shit out, you think NCIS is gonna be able to figure this out? I'm like. And he's like, have some fucking integrity. Like, tell me the truth. I'm like, sergeant Major, like, this is what happened. This is what the JAG told me to do. You know, I made a mistake. And he was like, all right. He's like, thank you. He's like, I'm going to push for a 6105 or page 11, whatever it is. And I go back down. It's not up to him, though. It's up to the company level. So I go back down there, they pull my NJP paperwork, tear it up in front of me, type up new fucking NJP paperwork saying that my. Your friend fucking altered it and NJP me. And, you know, it was like company level at the time. I was like, oh, this is it, the end of the world. You know, I'm like, fucking tears in my eyes. Like, oh, my gosh. Like, talking to my squad leader, my platoon sergeant, and they're like, you're piece of shit like you, but, you know, do better. And so it was honestly the best thing that could have happened from then on out. I was like, I have to, you know, I can't up where I can, like, gotta learn to not get caught. And so, you know, from there on out, I was like, I need to be the, you know, the best that I can be. And it was. I was on my P's and Q's, and it was honestly the best thing that could have happened. I mean, from there on out, how.

[Brandon Herrera]

Terrifying, dude, for anyone that doesn't know that is, that would be fearful. Especially your sergeant Major. Yeah, you're, like, doing that door knock, dude. You have to go in.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

He did one of those. Like, it wasn't even like yelling. It was just like, low. Like, hey, you're fucking idiot. Like, tell me the truth.

[Brandon Herrera]

Mexicans aren't major.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it was good though, man. I mean, I. From there on out, like, I legitimately just. I was like, I got to be as physically fit as I can be and learn as much as I can. And, you know, I saw a lot of bad leadership in the Marine Corps, but I'm very grateful. Like, my direct leadership, my squad leader, my team leaders, like, they poured into me a lot. And, you know, anything that I could handle, they gave to me. And I was the first person to get meritoriously promoted to E4 above all my peers and most of my seniors. Yeah. After that, my promotion restriction perfectly lined up with the same month that I was picking up E3. So after that, I got meritorious E4 and I got meritorious E5 above all my peers. And so it was scared straight. Yeah. Yeah, quite literally.

[Brandon Herrera]

And the second dude, I can't even imagine them tearing. Everybody, like, everyone signs it and you're like, on a lawyer. Yeah, that would have been. You're thinking in your head, it's like, oh, yeah, mom said this is a good idea. And then you see all the ice go like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Did you ever talk to your mom about it after. Yeah, that phone call, like, after. I'm like, I was like, waiting to go to legal and I'm in the car and I'm like, I gotta fucking tell my mom. And I. I was like, hey, I'm. I'm in a little bit of trouble right now. I gotta go speak to a lawyer on Monday. It's Friday. And she's like, what the fuck did you do? And I was like, I can't tell you right now. But it's not that. I was like, it's not that bad. And it really wasn't that bad in the long run, but I thought it was the end of the world. So. She was like, you're. You're idiot. You know, but I can't believe this. But, yeah, like, it's a good. She was like, it's a good thing you're getting. You're requesting a lawyer. And I'm like, it doesn't seem like it's a good thing. Everyone's like, treat me like, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, you were.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, I was terrified. Honestly. Say I was like, oh, do you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Ever struggle with tiny toiletry bottles?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, with Mando struggle no more. I would not want to spread whole body deodorant on you, Nick. It's going to get all clumpy in my chest hair.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

But look like I've.

[Brandon Herrera]

Been rolling around in mashed potatoes.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

How well does it lubricate?

[Brandon Herrera]

It's developed by a doctor and it works for 72 hours. Show some respect.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I'm going to tell that to everyone at the Magic the Gathering tournament.

[Brandon Herrera]

I wish I was there when they figured out that it wasn't good for 73 hours. I like to imagine just a fat guy on a treadmill for 72 hours. Straight up, he's turned. Time to shower.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Finally, fatty curdled.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thanks to Mando.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's also named after Mount Fuji.

[Brandon Herrera]

Really? Mine's bourbon and leather. Because I'm a man, though.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Couldn't even get through an ad without a pun. What?

[Brandon Herrera]

Do you want to sell the deodorant or not? Brandon?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I'm just waiting for the sweet release of death.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's not going to come for at least 72 hours.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Listen, we did a lot of meet and greets during the live tour. Y' all could use some mando.

[Brandon Herrera]

For a strong, independent woman. You can do everything a man can do. You can still use some mando. Our kids and Nick dead.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

The cops are coming.

[Brandon Herrera]

We've got 72 hours to hide the body before it starts to smell.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Actually does smell pretty damn good.

[Brandon Herrera]

This one smells like the body wash. Smells actually really good.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I have bourbon, leather.

[Brandon Herrera]

Anybody find the body? No, but that ditch over there smells delicious. There's no way there's a body over there.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

You said we can ad lib. Joke's on you. We're into that. This isn't your average deodorant or antiperspirant.

[Brandon Herrera]

You can try Mando's starter pack. It's perfect. It comes with absolutely everything. Stick deodorant cream, deodorant. Two free products of your choice, like a mini body wash or deodorant wipes. And free shipping as a special offer. You'll get 20% off site wide with our exclusive Code Unsub. That's Code unsub. [e-mail]. you're going to have. I can't stress enough imagine where your. Your. Your company and your battalion. Because it was everyone in the company.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Or battalion that was like, yeah, no, it was everyone. It was everyone in the battalion. Like every. It was every. Like, I'm four to 600 people. Yeah, I'm walking past every. Oh, boy. And it's two stories and it's. Come here. Yeah, come here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, can you too.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

They weren't really smoking me. They were just screaming like. And I mean, like, I would have rather just taking push ups, like, you know, hold a plank or squat, whatever. But they're just screaming like, you're the worst. You're the worst. Like, I'm just like, yeah, I think I am. You know, it's like, oh, it's hive mind.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, there's no.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was bad. But I mean, it worked. It really did work. And honestly, you know, I don't know. I can't say that, you know, my trajectory in the Marine Corps would have necessarily been different, but I was definitely like, okay, like, I got to make a name for myself and you know, grateful that I had the leadership that I did. And, yeah, it worked out, I would say. Or maybe it didn't. I don't know. But free parking.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

God. Always the light at the end of the tunnel. Like, well, no property tax. That's pretty fucking dope.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

You're like.

[Brandon Herrera]

So during that time, what was like, one of the dumbest soldiers you had met because you had to have some dumb fucks in that time frame?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, man, I'm trying to think of, like a really. All right, I'll share one. Like, one personal guy that was in my squad. He was in one of my teams when I was a boot. We're in 29 palms and, you know, we're desert training. I won't share his name, but we're in desert training. And he. The Marine Corps had fielded the, like, the M27DM variants. So, like, they were, at that time, you know, 2018, they're the only ones that had IARS, the HKM27s that had a suppressor and they had like a. I don't know, maybe a 2 to 12 times scope on it or 4 to 12 or something.

[Brandon Herrera]

But rain's got this.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, I mean, it. It was. It was kind of like a, you know, shoots 5.5, 6. But it was like the, hey, here, every squad gets one of these, or, you know, three to every squad or whatever it was. They knew they needed to overbuild them for the Marines. Yeah, exactly. And because the rest of us, like, at that time, when I got in, team leaders and squad leaders had M4, M4s and 203s. And then everyone else was getting field at M27. So we all had IARS, and we go to 29 palms, and it's like a battalion level exercise or company level exercise. And one of these dudes in my team, he's. We're doing like, edl, like, doing counts. Everyone, you know, they're counting for all these. All this gear and stuff, and they're like, all right, dms, like, all the dms, come here, you guys are gonna go do this range or whatever it was. And they're like, marine, where the is your suppressor? And. And they're like, we're like, what's going on over there? And like, Marine, where the is your suppressor? And he was like, it's back at the hooch, staff sergeant. And, you know, we're, I don't know, 20 miles outside of, like, where we were, like, staying for training. And we're like, we're in the field. And he was like, oh, well, we. I was told to take it off. Like, if, you know, if we're not running, if we're not, like, like, using it, if we're not shooting, if we're in garrison. I was, you know, I was told I could take it off. Like, yeah, but retain it. You know what I mean? Like, take it off and retain it so it's not smacking on or whatever. He's like, so I left it behind. And. And then they're like, hey, word got around that he was in my team and. Or in my squad or whatever it was. And they started saying, like, Wayne's corporal, or, you know, PFC Vargas is. Is missing his suppressor. Like, you stupid. Like, talking about me. And I'm like, this is not me. Like, I. I didn't lose my suppressor. And everyone's like, hey. Like. And then I just. I got flashbacks, you know, I'm getting screamed at, like. Like, dude, like, I. Hey, this is not. This is not me. Like, he's in my squad. He's not in my team or whatever it is. And then, like, they're trying to mitigate the problem. Like, guys in my squad, my platoon, are trying to mitigate the problem. Like, it wasn't Vargas. Like, it was so and so. But you're getting bullied on his behalf. Yeah. Everyone's like, hey, you know, this first sergeant, this gunny, the staff's gonna, hey, you stupid bitch. Like, you're a piece of shit. I'm like, dude, oh, not again. And I didn't even do it this time. Exactly. And so I go back. I volunteered to go back with him. I was like, at least I could do is fucking, like, help this dude. And so we go back. The hooches are locked. So we drive like an hour back to wherever the hooches are locked. It's just those, you know, you cut the can. You cut this can in half and lay sideways on. On the ground. And that's like, what, you know, we're standing and the hooch is locked. And I'm like, how the are we gonna get this dude? Suppressor. And there's like a window, like, this big. Like, that big up top. And so I like, boosted his ass up. He goes in there, climbs through the window and gets his suppressor. And we come back and missed all that day's. That entire day of training. And, like, we're sitting there with motor T. And like, same thing. Like every staff and CEO is just coming down the line. Like, you're piece of like like you, dude, like, how'd you lose your suppressor? I'm like, dude, this is, this was not me. But that was, that was your boy next to you just like, yeah, it quite literally he's just like, I'm not gonna throw him under the bus. But I'm like, hey, like, it wasn't me.

[Brandon Herrera]

And you can say his name right now if you want.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, no, no, it's all right. I, I, that, that same. So to, to kind of allude to that, a lot of, you know, they call, they call your, your junior Marines your peers. They call them your sisters, right? So like my sister, I had become like the first boot team leader, you know, second boot team leader in our platoon. And you know, we're all getting trained hard and well, right? And so you go, you go and like someone fucks up in the, in the fire team or in the squad or whatever, you know, kind of mass punishment pretty often. And so, you know, you're going and doing your thing in the barracks room or wherever it may be. And we come back from cold weather mountain warfare training in Bridgeport and our company commander is like, yeah, Northern California. So it's like near, it's near Mammoth, Northern California, Sierra Nevada's. But we did our mountain warfare training centers there for the Marine Corps. They do like summertime, like the horseback riding or like wintertime, do winter mountain leader and like teach you to ski and shoot off skis and do stuff like that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Still do horse riding.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Special operations will go up there, do training and like you like fight off a horseback.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, that makes way more sense.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. And fight off horseback.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, maybe that doesn't make sense. Horses with that scare the shit out of them with a gun.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

So you'd be surprised. The, the relevance of horse warfare goes way later than you think. Yeah, it was, there were millions used in World War II.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean they were, yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I mean even in Afghanistan.

[Brandon Herrera]

Afghanistan, yeah. Literally in Afghanistan, they were still using.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's just ODA 595. Yeah, yeah, it's. But yeah, they still, they still teach it there. And we come back, so they're lining us out, you know, we've got all our extra cold weather gear. Company commander is checking out everyone, you know, making sure everyone's got their shit so they can turn it back in. And that same dude is like, hey, so and so was like hazing me like right in front of the company commander, like, and you know, he was, he was a little bit of softy. And yes, I would say yeah, he's like, so and so is like, hazing me. But he wasn't saying it to the company commander. He was saying it to someone else. But, like, he's like, when so and so is hazing me at this time, the company commander's like, right here or whatever, right behind him. And the company commander, our company commander, he like, kind of looks back and he just doesn't even say anything. He just, like, keeps going down the line. And. And then our leadership, direct leadership's, like, you guys are all getting up, like, for him saying that. You guys are. You guys are getting up. And I'm like, I am. I'm sick again for this dude. I was like, straight up. I was like, hey, I'm not. I'm not paying for his mistakes anymore. I was like, off. If you guys want to watch me beat his ass, like, I'll box him. Like, I'll do whatever. Like, I'll be his ass in front of all of you. Like, I'm not. I'm not doing this anymore. Like, he up. He up too much, you know? Yeah, so he up too much. And they're like, all right, well, he has to be okay with it. And I was like, he's gonna be okay with it. Like, we'll make this happen after work. And so I'm like, hey. And I like, I've got boxing gloves. You and I are going to go. Going to box in front of so and so, you know, at the end of the day, because I'm not getting up for your anymore. And he was just like, okay. And so, you know, sure. We go. And like, body shots turned into face shots. And yeah, it went as expected. You know, it was. It was good. But that was kind of the end of that as a. As a young junior marine. But, dude, you.

[Brandon Herrera]

You fuck.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was funny.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's weird because that's the one way they learn. It's unfortunate, but they will continue to fuck up. But when you do, like, that push of punishment where it's. I've watched dudes have to low crawl a mile.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And like, rock. Like, no, fucking low crawl. Like, keep low crawl. Like, just keep it going. And it is rock. They're getting cut up and they're just like, you can't pick your face up off the ground. You're just sliding. And it is around a track and around the track. I was like, oh, they really up. But again, different military at the time because it was like match mass punishment.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Was quite all, unfortunately. I mean, like, as we are all very well Aware. It's unfortunately changing now, but it's at the end of the day. Yeah. It's a war. They're war fighting organizations. That's it. Period. Nothing else. It's a war fighting organization. If you can't handle getting screamed at or getting fucking punched in the face, you probably shouldn't be there, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

You'Re not gonna like getting shot at, I promise.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you're worried about a name being called. Yeah. Battlefield not the place for the.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

You. Yeah. What is it do you. That you think we do here? Yeah, exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's why I never understood. Especially, like, infantry level. It's like, yo, homies, this is.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Why do you have a problem with this?

[Brandon Herrera]

You're gonna get up. If you learn or die. Literally learn, Be the best you can or die and kill people along the way because you're stupid.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Weak.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Don't get me wrong, like, there. I mean, there are times it's crossed the line, but I mean, every. Everything that I've seen in the Marine Corps, infantry, for the most part, firsthand, is like, hey, if you feel like you're not being treated like a man, you know, you speak up and you say something, and speaking up's either verbally saying something or, you know, blows are being thrown and. And that's that. But there's only, like, a couple instances in and around the regiment where, like, dudes were legitimately getting hazed. Like, someone. Someone's name was like, Swim. Like, legitimately, their last name was Swim. And, like, they were being made to swim, like, in the bathtub and, like, some absurd shit and, like a gas mask and stuff. Like, ridiculous, you know, pretty ridiculous stuff.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did he up a lot?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I can't confirm or deny. I don't know.

[Brandon Herrera]

But that's always the one thing. I'm like, what'd they do, though? Yeah, he's clear to say soldiers.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Eli just hit him with the. What was he wearing?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. What was he wearing? He deserved it.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Dear Lord.

[Brandon Herrera]

So fuck, man. And then your first. Was it your first deployment when everything.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Happened or so that was my second. The first deployment. I mean, you know, they call it the Booze cruise. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. So it's. We were on and off ship for months at a time in between Indo Pacom. So it was Indo Pacific Command. That was South Korea, Japan, Australia, and.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you for your service.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Thank you. It was a blast. Yeah. So was the second. It's so cool. Yeah, it was the second. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sorry.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That was good. That went right over my head.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That was good. It was. It was a blast, though. Yeah. Both of them. Australia was. I got so nervous when you didn't laugh. No, no, I honestly missed. I was still processing what he said. I can't honestly really hear out of my right ear, so if, like, I miss anything, he's got the better ear, but. Yeah. No, that's funny. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Cancel this guy. Yeah. How long were you there? Second. Second blast or first blast? First blast. That was like six or seven months. That was in 2019. So I think we left in, like, April of 2019. But, yeah, we went to. We. We flew, you know, like, flew from the US To Germany, to Japan, to Okinawa, and then we were in Okinawa for weeks to a month or so, and then we went on ship for a month or so, traveling around. Yeah, it was. It was a blast, man. We got to cut the Freedom off the coast of Japan. Spearfish. I mean, that's fucking cool. Have you ever been outside of the country before? One time. And in 2017, my mom took myself, my siblings, to the Bahamas for, like, a week, and that was, like, the only big family vacation we'd ever gone on. But now that was, like, my first time being, like, immersed into a culture and, you know, slanted. It was. It was. It was cool. Yeah. Japan was awesome. People were great. We caused a lot of problems. You definitely understand, I mean, why prices are jacked up around military bases and people don't want to interact with you sometimes. So we would go, me and my friends, like, the smart Marines, would go far away from base, you know, and then Japan, South Korea.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right in.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I get the tape out. Yeah, I think they're buying it. Yeah. Where we're like, you know, we're like, grunting and pointing to order stuff on the menu, you know, but on the gossamers. South Korea was awesome. I mean, that was all just, like, live fire training, and we were just a little south of DMZ Camp Rodriguez and a few other places in South Korea, but that was a fun time. We were supposed to go to Seoul and ended up halfway there, drunk off a train, and had, like, actual Korean barbecue. But we spent a lot of time, like, training and also, like, playing soccer with the Rock Marines and Republic of Korea. Australia probably by far my favorite. I mean, they just. They love Americans, man. Like, I don't know if you guys ever been to Australia or not, but I've always heard that from other sailors, especially the women. They just love. Yeah. It's the truth. American dudes. Yeah. And I mean, unfortunately, domestic violence is, like, a significant part of their culture for men against women. Yeah, that's what they told us in our cultural briefs. And they're like, hey, if you see, like, women getting hit or yelled at, like, don't do anything. And, you know, there were Marines that definitely tried to. Australia. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

The same brief for Iraq.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it's. I didn't see any of it, but we had a great time, like, with, you know, with the men and the women. Take that however you want. But it was. It was fun, man. I mean, it was really cool to see another country that like, that. I mean, the reason. Anyone listening, the reason why they love us so much is because of our rich roots back to World War II and World War I. But, you know, they. They're just as patriotic as we are. Honestly, I like a true patriotic American. Like, true patriotic Americans. It was the same over there. I mean, they had. In Sydney, I remember they had, like, massive, like, war memorials, and a lot of it was, like, filled with American history and, like, Americans in World War II and, like, what we did to help them, that was, like, really cool. Colony siblings. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It was. It was awesome. I mean, it was just. I was at that point where I became a boot team leader and I was an E4. So, like, they're like, hey, you guys are ported in Sydney and brisbane for, like, four or five days. Any E4s or team leaders can, you know, get a liberty pass to get a hotel and in both of these cities for the weekend. And so we just got to go party for, you know, four days, five days at a time. And then we were doing ma kilo rays into the outback and watching dingoes drag kangaroos around and shit, and getting attacked by literally everything. I mean, everyone hears, like, how lethal Australia is, and, I mean, getting eaten up, eaten alive by the ants and the spiders, it's. It's very real, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, they found Australia spider. Dude. That's honestly a horrifying thought, but they don't like gays, man. I'm not gay. Please help. Yeah, Kangaroo rips your horrible. Okay, that's where I don't like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, it was actually, like, anti rainbow flag. We went to Australia.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I didn't know my uncle was a kangaroo.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, God.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you know it's smooth sack summer?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Damn right it is. I need to quit.

[Brandon Herrera]

Feel how soft they are.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Was this a scratch and sniff?

[Brandon Herrera]

Wow, those are soft.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Don't act like you've never done a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sack check with the boys.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Join the over 12 million men worldwide who trust Manscaped.

[Brandon Herrera]

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[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

This trimmer features dual skin safe blade heads, now accompanied by an updated trimmer.

[Brandon Herrera]

Blade and interchangeable foil blade for enhanced performance.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

They now have a special edition dropped. It's purple. For testicular cancer awareness. And all jokes aside, every purchase does help raise money for testicular cancer charities. Manscaped has already donated $50,000 to the testicular Cancer Society.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that's why we're proud to talk about something that literally saves lives.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Routine self checks matter.

[Brandon Herrera]

Make sure you check your boys boys with your mouth.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

So if you want to look good, feel good, and do good, grab the.

[Brandon Herrera]

TCS Ball Hero Bundle. While supplies last, get 15 off your.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Entire order by using the code [e-mail].

[Brandon Herrera]

Visit manscape.com tcs to learn more about how to check yourself or make a.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Donation at TC Society today. Help save lives.

[Brandon Herrera]

And balls trim your pubes. God damn it. Smooth sack, Summer.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was funny because, like, one of the times we were doing, they were doing like, they brought CLB marines in combat logistics Battalion Marines into, like, land and do a mock, like, embassy recovery or reinforcement. And they're like, coming in out of. Or they weren't fast roping, but they were like, getting off the ospreys and. And there's literally kangaroos, like, on the lz, like, pressing up on them, like, get the away from us and they don't give a.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's wild watching them, like, blow up.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

They're nuts. Like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nope, I'm good.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. I mean, a lot of guys got to try, like, kangaroo there in Australia. I. I didn't get the opportunity. Yeah, I. I missed out. We just one of those, like, you get too drunk. Drunk. You're supposed to go to the zoo or go to go wherever. And I don't think that's where you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Try kangaroos at the zoo.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

There's like, infantry marine just like, taking the free samples from the bass pro stocked pond.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, this was a petting zoo.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

The kids are screaming. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stabbing zoo.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Now that's a scenario. I agree with your mom. You should probably get an attorney. Yeah, probably, man. Yeah, it was. It was a. It was a good time. But that. That deployment is when I got. We were in Korea and I got meritoriously promoted to E4. And then we came back, took over the squad. My squad leader became a platoon sergeant and then I went to advanced Infury school, moved into 2020 and what's advanced Infantry School? So it's. It's advanced. At the time it was advanced infantry course. Now it's like, I don't know, like advanced infantry, Marine Corps. The Marine Corps has changed a bunch of stuff. But it's like, it's pretty much your like squad leader school. So like, oh, okay, yeah. I mean, it's up to that point, like, I had great leadership, so I'd been taught everything. So school was like very like, education wise. I had already known everything. It was just like one of those like checking the box. You need to go do. Do a bunch of hard physically and like, pass and. Yeah, like while you're learning, while you're performing these tasks and whatnot. And then came back and my, My buddy Dalton, he who was. Ended up. Sorry, something. My. My buddy Dalton, who ended up being my assistant team leader for my sniper team, he was like, hey, I am going to run the sniper screener. No one knows in the platoon other than our lieutenant and now you. I was like, you son of a. So he was one of my best friends. I like, plenty of times where he was like, I was a boot. He was my first squad leader. And like, he was like, also my dad kind of in the Marine Corps. I grew up without a dad or I had a dad for a little bit of my life. But he was like my dad in the Marine Corps and we're brothers now. But that dude, like taught me everything he knew, trained me very hard along with the rest of my peers, and plenty of times where I wanted to punch him in the face, and plenty of times I have punched him in the face and likewise to him. But I was like, you son of a bitch. Yeah, I was like, you son of a. Like, I would have gone with you to run the screener. And he was like, well, let me see if like they're still accepting paperwork. And it was like a Wednesday night, we're in the field and by Friday morning they're like, hey, if you can get your entire packet done, like, you can run the screener on Monday. And I was like, well, run the screener. We both got selected and then went into the sniper platoon. I turned down school to go do the assessment selection for marsoc. And I ended up giving myself a hernia larger than the size of a quarter right on my asshole and missed both sniper school and going to assessment selection. And so I Got. I was stuck for weeks. Like, couldn't even do a push up. And I remember I like, went into work.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is it bad?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, I went into work and I was like, hey, doc, like, I need you to check this out. And he goes, all right, you know, drop your pants, spread your cheeks. And I do that. And first words out of his mouth were, oh, my God. And I was like, dude, are you serious? He's like, that's bad. I'm thinking, like when you're describing, you're like, oh, yeah, it's a hernia. The size larger than a hemorrhoid, not a hernia. Okay, got it. I was like, are wrapping around his butt cheek.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I was like, dude, cuz. I'm like, cuz you said the size of a quarter. I'm like, that's not bad. You're like, on my. And I'm like, holy. Yeah. No.

[Brandon Herrera]

As a raider scavenging a derelict world.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

You settle into an underground settlement.

[Brandon Herrera]

But now you must return to the.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Surface where arc machines roam. If you're brave enough, who knows what you might find. Arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game. Buy now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series.

[Brandon Herrera]

X and S and PC rated T for teen.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Sorry.

[Brandon Herrera]

Your guts are just like, my fault.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it was a hemorrhoid okay. Still. Oh, yeah, no, this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Pretty bad.

[Brandon Herrera]

They popped it.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, they gave me. They gave me like, you know, fucking cortisone cream and like steroid cream and antibiotics to put on my asshole every time I shit. But yeah, so I missed out on that. And then, you know, fast forward a little bit through 2020. Going into the end of 2020, there's just a lot of back and forth. Like, hey, you guys. The Marine Corps had opened up all of the CENTCOM deployments back to the entirety of the Marine Corps. So at for a couple years at least, only 7th Marines who are based out of 29 palms out of the desert, were getting those Middle east deployments. And so they opened it back up to the entire Marine Corps. We had one or two units from our regiment that pumped out right before us. And then we. It was our turn, and it was a lot of like, hey, you guys are going, you're not going, you're going, you're not going. And then like two months before, a couple months before, they're like, all right, you guys are going. And so stand up with that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was it like standing up? Everyone's getting. Act like, oh, we got to get everything ready and then stand down or is like, hey, just, just keep all your kit. Good. Just in case.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, I mean, we were, I mean we were, we were already preparing. We knew that we were going on deployment. We just didn't know what deployment we were going on for a lot of it. It was already like we were prepping for that for probably like six months or so. And then suddenly they're just like, hey, you guys aren't doing this. And then, then we were already, you know, prepared to go. So then the back and forth started. But yeah, we were, we were ready. As ready as we could be anyway. And then we went on that deployment and like for a sniper platoon, when sniper platoons were still a thing in the Marine Corps at that time, like every team, every sniper team goes to a different country essentially. So like you've got the battalion, the unit which is the battalion, and the battalion's broken up into multiple companies. You got like, like, you know, three line companies, which is all like the, the grunts, like riflemen, whatever, machine gunners and stuff. And then you've got like headquarters company and then you've got weapons company. And weapons company is made up of snipers, heavy machine guns, heavy mortars, all that stuff, anti tank. And so all the sniper teams, they get reattached back to each individual company. So we went to Al Jabber, Kuwait first with Echo Company, and that was pretty cool because Echo company is like where I came from. From. That's the, the company that I grew up in and then went to snipers from there. This was April, I think also April of 21 or so.

[Brandon Herrera]

You guys want hot Kuwait?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, yeah. Humid as it is. Just like walking through water. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, but it's 120.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's bad because it's right on the border of Iraq. And yeah, we were there and then they were prepping us to go to. Into Syria and I don't know, I don't, I don't know whatever happened with that. They're like, hey, all of the bases in Syria are going to be broken down and like you guys are going to follow and trace. And then one day they're like, oh, that's not happening anymore. Like, you guys are going to Saudi Arabia. And so we went to Saudi Arabia. Yeah. And as a show of force for Iran and then sat there for, you know, five months or whatever it was. And just like the rest of world, world watched Afghanistan fall over months and.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was so like, sorry. Like this is something new for me. Even Saudi Arabia, because I don't Even know what a deployment a guy always forget. We will send soldiers over there or Marines. But what does that entail? It's like show force. That means, okay, hey, we got our vehicles, we got overhead. Everything's covered. But what is the deployment like with something like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I mean, it's just. Just training. I mean, it's small. Small unit training and then like running ranges. Just really working out and training. Like, that's really. I mean, same Middle East. Yeah, same. But, like, I will say Saudi Arabia. Like, people say, like the sandbox. Like, Saudi Arabia is the sandbox. It was just sand dunes. That's all it was. It was 100. Yeah. 125, 127 degrees and mile high. Dust storms just coming in all the time. And.

[Brandon Herrera]

And like, dust storms. A dust storm is insane. Because you could. I could. You won't see Sav or show in a dust storm. Yeah, they are gone. Like, gone. And you just have to park your vehicles and you're like, yeah. Oh, hey, we cannot go. Okay, everyone's stand down.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I just experienced one for the first time. Like, a couple months ago. We were up at Isaacman's place. The Bozeman.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And I'm sure it wasn't anything close to, like, what. What they were still. Yeah, but I'd never. I didn't know that was even a thing that happened in this country. But just suddenly we're outside, it gets really windy, and then immediately you're just hit. Like, you see this haze and you're just hit and like, it's all in your fucking eyes. And food. Then Montana. Oh, Montana. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Damn.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I had no idea that happened out there. I didn't either. I was just like, what the just happened? Five minutes later, it's gone. These ones it is. Yeah. They're quick.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that wave as you watch it come towards you and yeah, you're like. Like, oh, get in a vehicle. Not going restroom or anything because.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Well. Yeah. And it starts out. You see it like a mile out from you, and then just suddenly you can't see. You can't see, you can't breathe. Like, nothing. Oh, yes. And the sand worms, Lisa Nakaida, they're.

[Brandon Herrera]

Heading east or wherever that direction is, through that movie. Cody would know.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And then you got like, you know, we're Marines. So the. The sandstorms come and we're, you know, we have. We're like staying in literal tents. Like little half dome tents that fit, you know, eight to ten people in them. And sandstorms come and then you've got Marines outside in their underwear with goggles on and like gas masks and, and just like doing dumb out in the middle of the dust storm. But yeah, it was, it was a, it was a. I mean it was a great time. It was interesting for sure. But I mean, every day. Yeah, we got, Yeah, I believe we got combat pay in Saudi. I can't remember, but they were, they were shooting like the, the rebels, whatever. I can't remember who it was, but it was. Yeah, probably they were shooting people. So we're on Prince Sultan Air Base and you've got like, whatever, I don't know, entity is fighting the Saudis. Whatever rebel entities fighting the Saudis. They're shooting rockets. They know where we're at. We're on tiny little, you know, barbed wire fenced base on the air base. And so they're shooting rockets and over us to hit the Saudis, but they won't shoot them onto us. So like we obviously, you know, won't retaliate. And so we're just like hearing this go on. Occasionally. It wasn't like every day, but occasionally it's going on or it wasn't going on on our side of base every day. But that's funny that they're, they're afraid of you guys. So they're just like, oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, dude. If a rocket, I guarantee if a rocket accidentally hit them, they would kill that dude that shot it and drag him, be like, mister, sorry, sorry. Killed him for it. No problem.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

We handled this one ourselves. It was. Yeah, it was, it was an interesting time. I mean, we. They put the marines so it was like traditionally just Air Force and army there. And they put the Marines a mile this way on the farthest side of the base away from like, like everyone else. So if you wanted to go get like actual food, you had to walk a mile. If you wanted to go use like the big gym, you had to go walk a mile. Which just meant like, you know, a bigger tent but filled with fitness equipment.

[Brandon Herrera]

But they sucks on base anyway. People have done deployments to the big fobs like cobs. You're just out in sector. Everything's really small, tight, everything's good. But on the big bases and the big Fox, Falcon, whatever. Or maybe not Falcon because they have like buses and bus routes. But those ones are the worst. Because it is. I gotta go to the chow hall.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Group walk, mile, eat, walk back.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

Gym walk, mile, walk back. And then it's 125 degrees. Yeah, it sucks.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, that's def. Yeah. You're drinking like a liter of water on the way to go eat breakfast. Yeah, and it was funny. There was actually. So I, I, I actually almost died before going in Afghanistan and. Something funny, Eli.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, that's why I started laughing. I was like the only dude that would start, it's funny. I almost died.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. How dare you.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like you started that sentence. It's funny.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

So like I, I, there's a running joke in our team. So our team had, there were six of us in our sniper team. And, and the running joke, like, I was always like, I make my own, my own luck. Like I would always say that like you guys and make my own luck. And we're going to Kuwait to use the army sniper ranges there. So we're, you know, flying, flying over there and we're walking back from, from chow and there's a ladder like, and, and one of the guys was like, go walk under that ladder if you make your own luck. Like, and the team was like, oh yeah, I make my own luck and I go run the ladder, right? And then we go to Kuwait. And I, I hit like we got there, it was like the second or third day we were there and I hit 3:15 front squat for the first time ever. I was like, fuck yeah. I had like a two hour leg day. And then I went outside and I did sprints at 127 degrees. Like, sprint the straights, run the sides on this track for like, you know, two miles. And then I was like, man, I think I'm gonna pass out, out. And I like went and sat under an IDF bunker and I go back to our hooch and I'm like laying there, I've got like, I felt like I had the chills and I was like, do I have a fever? Like, what's going on? And I'm laying there and everyone's going to, ciao. And I was like, hey, can you guys bring me back some food? Like, I can't get out of bed right now. And they're like, yeah, sure. I was like, I think I'm like sick or something. And then they come back, I can't eat the food. And I just start like pissing and, and non stop. And it's like, like I all night long, fever and chills, get up to go to breakfast. And I was like, I need your guys's help, like putting my boots on. Like, I don't, I don't know what's going on. I'm like trying to hide it from my team leader and so we go to chow, and I'm, like, stumbling, like, literally stumbling on into chow, and, like, I gotta force myself to eat. I don't want to eat. And I'm. I get, like, the. You know, I get powdered eggs and whatever on my plate. And I'm sitting there, and I literally. I'm like. Like, start passing out in the middle of eating my food, and my team leader sitting across from me, and. And my boy Cooper, and they're like, yo, yo. Like, what the going on? Like, And I'm like, I need you guys to, like, drag me back to the hooch. Like, something's wrong. I don't know what's wrong.

[Brandon Herrera]

I love. It's not the aid station.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, I love to sleep this off.

[Brandon Herrera]

As I sleep in eggs. We were.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, we were. We were going to the field that morning, and, like, we were going to teach marksmanship skills to the line flying platoon. And I was like, no, no. I kept saying that too. I was like, no, no. Like, I'm good. I'm good. Like, just get me back to the hooch. Like, I'll be good. I was like, if you guys can throw my pack on the truck, like, I'll. I'll be okay. Like, I'll be all right. So I convinced my. I convinced him to let me go out to train, and I just. I sat in the back of a truck, and I'm just getting worse and worse and worse. Unfortunately, my team leader, his wife, she's an Air Force nurse, and she was like, I think he's got rabdo. She's, like, texting him, like, we got, like, Wi Fi. I think he's got rabdo. Like, you need to get him to the hospital. And she's. She's in. She's in Saudi, and we're in Kuwait. And he's. I'm, like, literally in and out of consciousness in the back of the Hilux. And he's my team leader, like, knocks on the window, and I look up at him, and he's like, you're going to hospital. And I was like, no, no, I'm okay. I'm okay. And he's like, no, you're going to the hospital. And I was like, all right. And I'm slobbering on myself, like, eating gummy bears. And they take me in. Take me to the troop medical center there. And they were getting ready to life flight me to Kuwait City. And I was like, I'm not going into some random city in the Middle East. Like, no, sorry. That's not happening. And this old doc or this old doctor walks out, and he was like, damn, I haven't seen Marines in a while. He's like, last time I was working on you, I was pulling you out of Fallujah. I was like, well, I just hit a 315 front squat yesterday. How's it going? I'm Tyler.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, as you're drooling.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, dude, it was rough. And he was like, they're, you know, taking my blood and stuff. He's like, yeah, you've got rhabdomyolysis. Your kidneys. You're probably a few hours from your kidneys failing. This is, like, very severe. You're lucky you got brought in when you did. You, like, could have died or gone septic or something. And I was like, oh, yeah, well, that's good. And then they just proceeded to dump fucking leader after liter after literally of IV fluid into me. And that was that. And then I go back, and one of our. The boy of our team, Andrew, he bought a mirror. Like, he bought a cheap, shitty mirror at a Saudi. I recovered from that. I thought it was the fastest cut of my life. I lost, like, 13 pounds. And you're just pissing out muscle, right? Like, I lost, like, £13 in two days.

[Brandon Herrera]

Your piss looks like dark.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

When I was going through the BUDS pipeline, my roommate was the class dog. Oh. So every, like, every month or every other month, we have some, like, new kid come in who's just, like, trying super hard to be a seal. And he'd be like, my piss looks like dip spit. Yeah, that's not good. But, yeah, little guy. Yeah, dude, it's. It's bad. Yeah, I. I recovered after, like, a month or two, but it was a little bit of time off. And we get back, Andrew buys a fucking mirror so we can all flex in, you know, in our tent after the gym. And day one, I. I broke it. Like, I knocked it over and it shattered on the floor. And, like, you got seven years bad luck. And same. I was like, I make my own luck. Like, you guys, don't tell me. Don't tell me about that. And, you know, we. We end up going into Afghanistan a couple weeks later. But, yeah. And so. And they're like, oh, my teammates always like, oh, you remember when you walked over that ladder and you broke that mirror? Like. Like, I think this is what happened. Like, what happens when you do that? But I need to, like, yeah. Is luck contagious? I'm still a firm believer. I make my own luck. But just some.

[Brandon Herrera]

I Call it stubborn.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brandon, do you need.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Not one more time. You got this, buddy. Brandon, can you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brandon, do you.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Almost there, bud.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brandon, where do you store your firearms?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

All over my house, in every crevice.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, do I have the product for you, Nick, show em. Here, Hand it to me, Brandon, so I can show you. Brandon, this is Stop Box. Stop Box. We love Box. You selling me what's in the box? You have to open it and find out.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

All right, well, let's see if I can do this. Oh, wow, look at that. Oh, can I hide my goop in that?

[Brandon Herrera]

You can hide your goop in that. Cody. Cody, do you know why I love this thing?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Why?

[Brandon Herrera]

Why?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Why? God, why?

[Brandon Herrera]

Because you don't have to use keys. Gun not included.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Cody, you've got multiple cats in your house, including Squirt, who's quite the scrapper. Would you want Squirt to have access to your firearms? No, he's violent. Well then Stop Box is the perfect product for you.

[Brandon Herrera]

No cats getting inside that or people without thumbs. The nice part is it is actually TSA compliant.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I didn't actually know that part until a couple months ago. That is actually really cool. You just put a little lock through there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Exactly.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

When you check in a pistol or any gun, if there's a hole that a lot can go through on whatever you're checking your gun in, you have to put a lock through that. This has one hole, so you just need one lock. Easily accessible once you land on the ground. I know you're not normally a one hole kind of guy, but this is definitely an exception to the rule. Never worry about tearing tariffs because everything is sourced right here in the usa.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, what are tariffs like?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I'm pretty sure I shot a few of them for a limited time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Only get 10 off your entire order if you use code unsubscribe checkout. And right now if you buy one Stop Box, you're gonna get another Stop Box free. So that's 10 off plus buy one, get one free. When you use code unsub at checkout, that's stopboxusa.com discover a better way to.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Balance security and readiness with stop box.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stopboxusa.com use code unsubscribe.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

But yeah, no, I mean we spent, you know, same like we were watching Afghanistan fall for for months on end and our the colonel of the sp mactaf. So I was on the Special purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response. He was trying to get us over there earlier and you know, higher than him, higher than the Marine Corps at the time was like, you guys can't go? Like, nope. And so we ended up getting sent in quite literally at the last minute for the non combatant evacuation operation. And, you know, I was. We were in Afghanistan. I think the latest someone was there was like 12 days from our unit maybe, but we were. I was in Afghanistan. We were. All worked for 10 days up until Abby gate to the blast. And so kind of crazy to think about, but like, yeah, literally 10 days in Afghanistan until, you know, the blast went off.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that was 10 days.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Turn around 10 days. Yeah, they 11 for my assistant team leader. Like, they sent him. We sent. They made us send in one of the guys from our team a day early. And then. Yeah, and. And it was good, honestly, because he met up with some rangers and they taught him how to hotwire vehicles. And so we got there, we're just hot wiring vehicles and stealing shit. Like, dudes were driving around luggage carts, like conveyor belts for planes to take people around. And. And we hotwired a bobcat and had like a little forklift on the front. And. And that was like our main mode of transportation. The whole theft is the wild West. But, I mean, it was a blast. Another. Sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. We. We just had major capers on.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, yeah. Really? Dude, that's cool, bro.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, so your. Your episode's gonna go right after his. That's awesome.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

And his stories. Because, I mean, you know, he's like, yeah, bro. Some of the best moments. It's like he's talking to Frank. Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this because Frank has problems when I talk about. And then Frank's like, well, I think, well, there's those issues, what is a war crime and what isn't, and then what group he's with. But you guys seem really good, so, yeah, you can tell whatever story you want. He's like, okay. So I cut the dude's throat, pulled my pizza on, shot the two.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

What's up? I was saying thank you. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's like, oh, we run. I first shot three dudes with the M6. I was like, bro, what are these stories?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's wild. It was how casual he said, I guess was very proud of him. Hey, one of the comments, I think, on the short I saw of him was, this dude gives ptsd.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Such a good dude too. Have you met him yet?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, no, no. I met Don Graves.

[Brandon Herrera]

Don's beer cans over there.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, really?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Don's good. Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, dude, yeah, he. I went to I think last year or early. Yeah, it was last year. Went to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement foundation gala in Dallas. I was invited to. And he spoke. He actually like fell down on stage. Like, like, like walking up on a stage to speak and they're like, people were rushing to help him. He's like, get away from me. He's like, get the away from me. And he gets up and he just talks. I mean you wouldn't know that dude was 100 years years old. He just sharp as could be. I was going to say the energy too.

[Brandon Herrera]

So sharp and his level. And I actually we're going to be helping them for their. For their trip. They're doing to something but unsub's helping pay for like, like that portion of. That's awesome. I was like, what's the number? And they're like, oh, it's this. I was like, but we got you. Like, well, that's fine. It's letting those guys go and do their final trips and everything.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I mean they're just. They're. The numbers are dwindling so fast because how old they are. I mean, pretty soon, a couple years, there's not going to be any. Any more World War II vets left.

[Brandon Herrera]

I remember at. When I was a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and I remember when I got the. It was reading the news at the last World War I veteran died.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Holy.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, that's wild. You're right. It's going to be that time frame when that happens with World War II.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's coming soon. Like they, they. There's some stat about how many hundreds of World War II veterans are dying every day now. Oh my gosh.

[Brandon Herrera]

We've got three on. So three. We're lucky to have three of them on. We want as many as possible. Any of those stories like Korean War veteran, Vietnam, it's like, what's cash of those stories G what we're going to be that sometimes going to be wild. It's like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's crazy. I mean, think about it. Those rip its words. I mean, you think about it. It's been 24 years since the start of it already. Like that's a while. That's a quarter of a century.

[Brandon Herrera]

My guys are retiring that I joined with. It's wild to me. Like I got my. I was like, man, I joined over 20 years. Like it's been two decades since I joined the military.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

When did you join?

[Brandon Herrera]

2005 and got out. Oh, eight.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

So you're like what, 23.

[Brandon Herrera]

24 when I was out.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, you're like, 23 or 24 years old now.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, just 23 years old.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And you. And so you said you went. You went through Bud's pipeline. Yeah, yeah, I joined in 2008. Yeah. Yeah. I was night or 20. I was 20. I just turned 20.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then you're like, I was born in 1998. I was like, oh, my God, I'm ancient. I could. I could buy cigarettes when you were born.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Holy doesn't count. The age was lower.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, man. Okay, so. I love the tangents. We will go on sometimes. So you. This is 10 days.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, so we. We went in. Our team was originally tasked with, like, doing, you know, doing some observation missions essentially on the Taliban and whatnot. We. We flew in and, like, they're like, oh, it's gonna be the. You know, gonna be the Alamo pretty much. And like, they're like. Like, multiple planes have taken, like, machine gun and RPG fire coming in. And, you know, we're coming in on C130, and we're blacked out going in. And I remember this, like, brand new. There was one dude, and our team got, like, attached to, you know, us, one of the platoons. And this, like, young Junior. He was like, E2. Young, fresh Junior Marine. He'd been in the unit for, like, two months before we went on deployment. And he's, like, hyperventilating. He was like. Like, straight up hyperventilating. And we're, like, descending into Afghanistan, and we're like, you know, like, Marine, like, so and so. Like, hey. Like, hey, like, it's okay. It's all right. Like, it's good. And the rest of us, like, we're stoked. You know what I mean? Like, we're anxious, but we're. We're excited. I mean, you know, we spent. Yeah, we spent 20 years watching, you know, watching the G. WAT and, you know, wanting to go do the thing and, you know, very. Yeah, I mean, really just, like, wanted to go help people and go kill the bad guy. And it was. It was like, wow, it's finally here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Young, dumb, and full of cum.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

All we used to say, brother.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And it ended up, you know, it was unlike anything, I mean, anyone had seen since Saigon. And I remember we were sitting there, we get moved out. He ended up that. That Marine. Sorry, let me not skip over that. That Marine ended up calming down, but we're like, hey, like, it's okay. But he was, like, verbalizing. He literally was like, I'm so scared. Like, I'm terrified right now. And we're like, you're all right. Like, we got you. Like, it's okay. And he calmed down. His squad leader calmed him down. We descend in and they're like, all right, you guys gotta the. Off the bird, like, set up the. Set up security, set up a cordon. And like, you know, the. The. The civilian terminal outside of Hkaya Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul had just been overrun the day before. So, like, all of our guys there were the ones on the ground where you see the videos of, like, civilians falling off the planes and like, literally thousands of people running across the Runway. That was the day before. Like, I got there with my team, but our team, our assistant team leader and, you know, 40 other Marines went that day. They went the day before. So they were there and they worked with 82nd Airborne and Rangers and everyone else to physically push thousands of people back off the airfield and literally re secure and seize every building on. On the airport.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is in a day.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, that's. It's like, yeah, like, my buddies were standing there on the Runway, like, when those bodies fucking fell off and smashed the pavement from hundreds of feet in the air. And we got there the next day and they're like, it's gonna be like, you guys are gonna be fighting when you get out pretty much like out of the burge. And we get up, we get out of the bird, we set up security, and there's this air force or this airman and this female airman, she like, walks up to us, she's got her fucking helmet strapped to her chest plate. She's got a clipboard. She's like, hi, guys, welcome to Afghanistan. And I was like, get the fuck up. Like, to our, like, half of our team, like, get the up. Like, what the fuck is going on right now? And she was like, yeah, like, your. Your. Your palletized packs are over there and blah, blah, blah, this is going on. I'm like, what a. This is a joke. Are you kidding me? Yeah. And so everyone gets up. Like, we go get our politized gear, we move to a gym, and we stage our. And then we're like, immediately just chomping at the bit. Like, let us go do something. Like, we're in Afghanistan, you know, and they're like, yeah, there's nothing, you know, we got nothing for you other than, like, go sit over here, set up a hindsight and like, observe the Taliban. So we're still like, we're jazz, like, we're pumped like, you know, we're. We don't care that we're not actively doing stuff, but, you know, we're searching for targets and, and suspicious behavior. And then, you know, we do that for a day or two and we're on this, like, radar site, like, right against. And if you guys want any, like, photos or videos, I mean, we all had our phones out there. I have hundreds of videos and photos. I was that guy. Like, people like, don't take photos. Don't take photos. That's like a military thing. I was that guy. Like, I'm gonna take some pictures. Like, I. I was like, our last team photo that went like, worldwide famous in the Marine Corps. In the military. Like, I was like, hey, you guys, you mother. This is the last time we're gonna take this picture. Like, you guys need to stand here and take this picture. And they're all giving me a hard time about it. And now it's like a famous photo in the Marine Corps. But yeah, it was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, still dismounting is why I love that idea of that hype. Especially when you're a new soldier. You are going into a combat zone.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then you're getting told that, that they will hype you up. And you don't under. Especially when you're brand new. Your chair. You have no clue. Because I thought, oh, when landing and quiz. Is it like that? Oh, we're landing in Iraq. Oh, is it like that? And then it slowly you peel that onion. You're like, oh, okay, never mind. And you're.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Do you think you're going to, like, Omaha Beach?

[Brandon Herrera]

And then Karen walks in. It's like, hey, guys, here, here and here.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, there's families playing on said beach.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I mean, we were literally descending and they're like, hey, we're blacking out. Like, previous planes have taken machine gun RPG fire. Like, be ready. And we're like, fuck, yeah. You know, Zero Dark Thirty, whatever. And then it was like a joke. But yeah, yeah, adrenaline. It was. It was funny. But yeah, we ended up in that first, like, day or two that we were doing that first mission, you know, observing and reporting. My buddy Jorge or Team Corman, he's like, hey, man. Like, I need to take a. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? I need to take a too. First in Afghanistan. And I have a picture of it, actually. So if you guys want that too. I took a picture of my first shit in Afghanistan.

[Brandon Herrera]

Blur it out. Brown pixels. It's in between.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's in between two Conics containers. But they have bathrooms. Not where we were, but there's the cycles. Exactly. Yeah. Dude, there was Rome porta shooters that were just like, I mean ten foot almost tall, like stacks of.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, you know, you seen when they.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Push through and you're like, what the. How do you get it that high?

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, Brandon's like, what? Dude, have you seen this?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

What, what is this?

[Brandon Herrera]

Porta Draw, you know, Porta Dron.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stack it where the poop is coming.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Through, where you've got to be like standing on top of the seat to like continue to add to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes, you're building.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Holding on to the. Holding on to the top hanging.

[Brandon Herrera]

I've not done that poop.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I kind of want to try now.

[Brandon Herrera]

Crossfit right there.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it. But you know, the penalty for not holding that hang is severe.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dipping your out.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's a new version of monkey bars. Oh, no. Yeah, we. Oh, sorry, I don't know another name for him. Yeah, no, so we both, we both took our shit and there was just a bunch of shipping containers there. And you know, we're opening them up and it was just literally, I mean, fucking like UN gear that was left behind, like Coalition gear left behind Allied Gear. And it was. I mean, all the ones are right there by that where that first mission was. It was all like plate carriers and helmets and tools and. And Jorge was like, hey, there's a shipping container over here that's got a bunch of tools in it. And I was like, all right, like power tools, hand tools, like, what? And he was like, everything. I was like, all right, let me come check it out. And he pulls out this like big ass pair of bolt cutters, like this tall. And he was like, oh. He's like, we could use these. And I was like, yeah, we'll throw them in the back of the Bobcat. And he's like, oh, there's another like, you know, little like 16 inch tall pair. And like, fuck yeah. Like, I'm gonna put those in my kit. So I kept them the whole time we're out there. That'll kind of make sense later. But we punch out of there and then we're waiting to hear what's going on. They're like, hey, we're gonna go open up Abbey Gate. The Brits had been cut off. The British Command was in the Barren Hotel. So you've got like the PAX terminal and the flagpole and like the Troop Medical center, like the Joint Medical Center. And then like three or four miles around the airport is where Abbey Gate is. And so there's Abby gate proper, and there's Abigate Forward, which is where we were at. We were at abigate Forward, which is against the canal and like, all the way, like into the city, essentially. It's like literally like the Baron Hotel. And the city is all right there. So like surrounding that portion of that gate, it's like, like two and three story buildings. The. The neighborhood of the outskirt of the city. And then like the, you know, going into downtown and. And the. The Brits have been cut off. You know, there's a Taliban checkpoint about 155 yards north of our position. And, you know, there's people coming through there, but most of the people are trying to go around the Taliban checkpoint because as much as, you know, same with everything. Like, everyone who wasn't there likes to say that things didn't happen. And, you know, the Taliban were executing people right in front of us. And we'd report on it and they'd be like, nope, don't do anything. Like, unless, you know, it's an American. Like, you know, that you see American passport in their hand or, you know, like they're being actively hurt or shot. Like, doesn't matter if there's someone else. Like, don't do anything, like. And I mean, I took pictures and videos of bodies and people being lined up to be executed and reported back on it and dropped it to intel, and they're like, nope, like, sorry, not our problem. Don't worry about it. Do you like a mouthful of hard wood?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes. Go on then.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Boy, do I have a product for you. I'm reenlisting in the Navy. No, not this time. Uh oh. The product is Fume.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's Fume?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's an amazing device for those trying to kick those nasty habits.

[Brandon Herrera]

When you said hard wood, you actually meant hardwood.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I'm sorry to disappoint, but yes, I mean literal hardwood.

[Brandon Herrera]

I love hardwood in my mouth.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Wait, you know what's gayer than hard wood in your mouth? Dying from cancer.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fume has an award winning design.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

There's no battery, no chemicals, just flavored air.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dial that airflow with the clickies. Brandon, you ever tried maple pepper?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, I like crisp mint because I'm a coward when it comes to flavors.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody, what's your favorite?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I don't know about flavor, but John C. Fume told me it was sexy and sleek.

[Brandon Herrera]

That is a sexy and sleek piece of wood right there, Cody. Oh, yeah, put it in your mouth. Suck that flavored air.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Quit cranking your wood. On camera. Start your guilt free journey with the good habit and use code unsub where you can get a free gift with purchase and start your long overdue breakup.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just head to try fume.com unsub and use code unsub to start your good habit today. I don't think a lot of people realize even in the time of war, you're not. That's their traditions, their customs, anything like that, Even if it's execution, fucking stoning, what does it matter?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's what you. Because you told that story about like having to like there's just chicks being.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stoned down the street, fucking crazy. And you're like, oh, wait, okay, this is part of the culture. Yeah. You can't do a thing. You're like, separate Sunni and Shia cart. Like as long as they're not with Americans, you literally can't do.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's what people in 10 days.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's a culture shock for you.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

100%. I mean, you know, we're, we're, we spent our entire Marine Corps careers, like up to that point, you know, thinking like, yeah, we're gonna go on fucking patrols and we're gonna go. I mean, being in a sniper team is a little different. Like, we're gonna go set up hide sites and we're gonna go do this and look for, you know, whatever and report observant shit. Yeah. And then it's like, hey, you guys are gonna deal with the worst humanitarian aid disaster since Vietnam. And I mean, quite literally just fucking hundreds of thousands of people descended on the airport and they ended up just over a couple days closing off all of the other gates around the airport. So the gate that we were at, our team, we're, you know, sniper teams, scout sniper teams conduct 247 continuous operations. So we're in our little two story tower. Like half the team is on the gun behind the spotting scope, on the camera. And the other half of us, like, maybe one person's catching in like an hour of sleep or two hours of sleep, but everyone else, the other half of the team is down pulling out refugees and pulling out interpreters and pulling out families. And you don't get no. Yeah, like you, you, you know, we're just going back and forth and like our team corpsman, he ends up like not being, you know, not being able to even be our team corpsman. He ends up triaging all the heat, heat stroke casualties, all the fucking children and women dying of malnutrition. And I mean, the first day we were there, it was literally like thousands Hundreds, if not thousands of people backed up against the gate. And like, we had to open it. And so, like, we opened it a little bit and it's just like, like people just trying to pour through. And you know, the way that I describe it, by the end of those 10 days, like, if I was to fill up this room with sand, like, that's how many people there were. Like, I know, you know, I'll share the videos with you guys, but literally just people like, like this holding babies over their heads, like, screaming at the top of their lungs. And like, it's kind of like something that lives with you forever. And everyone who was out there just like constant, like, screaming and crying, just like day in and day out, especially for our team. Like, everyone else was on like 12 hour rotations at the gate, but, like, we eat, slept and. And worked in the same spot. Like, we were in this little tower or on the ground. Like, we were just listening to it 24 7. What were you guys doing to restrain the crowd? Like, what? Just Marines down there on the ground? At first. Hands. Yeah, hands. And like, you know, setting up razor wires and like that. And then. And then even to go into that. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did they have. Because at that time there wasn't even.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Like T walls or there was like short little concrete walls and. But. God, Hesco.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, he.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, no, no, Hesco. So that was that point. We're like. We're like in. We're like in the city. Like, we're. We're literally in the city. So it's almost impossible.

[Brandon Herrera]

And you can't control. That's one thing. You can't. It's like, oh, we'll just get mob mindset. There is no control. There's not like, oh, I'll just get this under control and everyone will calm down. That does not exactly.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was. Yeah, it was just. It was just ramping up, like day by day. It was getting worse and worse and worse and worse. And like, a lot of it was. What was pretty wild is that we've got, you know, platoons at a time. Like the company was rotating out, but like platoons at a time of marines. So like 35 to 40 Marines at a time at the gate dealing with hundreds to tens of thousands of people. Like, literally like 40 Marines. 40 Marines plus dealing with tens of thousands of people at a time. And there's only so much you can do.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, and it's tens of thousands of people. You do not.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Don't. Yeah, exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fucking like, no idea. And they will do as best they will clack off.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Like 90% of those dudes had no, you know, 90% of those people had no reason to be there to escape. They were just desperate or they were, you know, mal intent. And I mean we saw a lot of that. Like they, I mean at one point, like the ground force commander, it was bad. Like they, they set up like, I think like three to five shipping containers. The army brought out shipping containers, like one of the best things they did. And there's a Taliban checkpoint. They had some barricades and shit, like right there in the middle of city. The Baron Hotel where the Brits were over here, front to the left. And then we set up like shipping containers so that no V bits could come through. So like then we've got Marines sitting on top of them filtering people through. But like, like the Taliban backed up to like right behind it and you know, processing people through, executing them, beating them, hitting them with pipes, like thinking that we can't see him. We're just not really caring, you know what I mean? Like they're doing it. We're not doing anything and we're not able to do anything. Rather. But the ground force commander like allowed the Taliban, he brought them up to the gate. So now you think about this. We've got got, I mean in, in our battalion, a handful of people that had like been there, done that, been Afghanistan and Iraq, whatever. It was not most or even many at that point, but like you've got dudes that have like buddies that were killed by the Taliban or ISIS and like that. And now the ground force commander out there is bringing the Taliban up, literally shoulder to shoulder, beating civilians with sticks right next to Marines. And they're like, let them do it. Like literally just like let him, let him do it. Like, don't do anything.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's crazy. You had to. Most of the individuals aren't going to have any experience. This is brand new.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

When I went, we did a Military Show, 2016 for something and it was wild because I was with army guys, I was with some Rangers I was with and a bunch of infantry dudes. And there was no one that had a CIB or combat. And I was like, yo, where's everyone? Like do that? And we don't get a gone.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And now. So you have that gap and now I handle this and you're. You guys are learning on the job.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, exactly. Because everything up to that point was like, we did one or two like mock neos, like mock non combatant evacuations in Saudi. So like they had all the Air Force, like, all the airmen, all the soldiers, like, come into, like, mock lanes to, like, search, you know, like very proper. Like, very proper, like, set up search lanes and do this. And you guys are in a hindsight. Yeah, you guys are in a hindsight inside a vehicle and, you know, doing urban hide. And then we get there, and it's like, hey, you guys have no vehicles. You've got no resources. Like, go do your job. And. And it's 100 times the people, and they're twice as rabid. Yeah, exactly. And it was. I mean, it was wild. I keep saying that, but, I mean, I. You know, I don't have better words for it. It's. It's interesting, like, especially. And, you know, this is, I think, the only thing I'll say on this. But it's interesting talking about this, like, every time I. My buddy. I don't know if you guys know Justin Governor at all, but, yeah, we know. He.

[Brandon Herrera]

He ended up picking me.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Picking me up. He ended up picking me up from the airport yesterday and dropped me off at the hotel. But he was talking. I was telling him. I was like, man, I was like, it's. It's tough because I. I come. You know, I've. I've shared this story, you know, a few times and in. In different ways, but, you know, still the story. And it's always like, man, like, you know, do people think I'm, like, a fucking. You know, just like, this guy's always talking about this, and I'm like. Like the imposter syndrome kind of creeps in a little bit, and I'm like, you know what? That shit, man. Like, no one's. Not that people aren't. But, like, you know, people aren't talking about this like, the Marine Corps, as much as I love the Marine Corps, like, I'll say it to this day, enlisting the Marine Corps still to this day, the greatest decision I've ever made in my entire life. It's shaped me, who I am. It's given me the best people that I love, whether directly or indirectly in my life. And, you know, it's made me the man that I'm proud of. But, man, like, they still won't even f. Ing talk about this shit. Like, they won't bring it up. Like, they want nothing to do with it. It's just a story that needs to get told. Yeah. And. And it's unfortunate, but, like, we still have zero accountability for what's happened. I mean, 13Americans were murdered. We knew it was gonna happen. And you know, I'm like, you know what? I at the very least, like, I mean like if I was fucking dead and I was buried in Arlington, like some of our brothers and sisters are like, I would hope that, you know, someone who was alive would fucking tell the truth about what happened. And you know, I've lucky enough and fortunate enough to have a platform and to be able to do that. And you guys are doing that for me as well and for them. So I'm grateful for it, very much so. And it's. It's tough, man. Like, you know, it's, it, it is.

[Brandon Herrera]

A travesty and stupid. And then to downplay it or to say, oh, we did what we can. We had so much precision in this withdrawal. We tried our best. It's been in the works for X amount of time or shift blame instead of being like there. There wasn't even barriers t walls. There was a million things you could do that was done for 20 years leading up to this point. You lived out in a cob in a sector. I lived in a cob. There was no running water and we had ditches built around our cob. A hundred meters out we had Constantino wire and then we had t walls 100, 100 meters from our little church we lived at that was out in sector of Iraq. And then it's like, oh hey, let's not do the same. But then let's not. No accountability for how we this up and just.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

But and logistically we knew this was coming. Yeah, well that's well in advance. Exactly. That's 100% it like they were our, our colonel of the S mag task for months was like bringing our. So sniper teams are battalion level assets. So like we get word from the fucking top and we're dealing, you know, with, with our commanders and stuff. And he's like, hey, like I'm trying to send you guys. But like they won't let the Marine Corps go. Like the administration will not let the Marine Corps go. And then we get sent in the last minute. But you know, to your point, it's like even that like the intel like what we were passed, like we knew what was going to happen. We were passed that the bomber was going to be there on that day on the 26th, the morning of. They're like, hey, he's going to be here sometime today. He's traveling with so and so this is what they're wearing. This is what they look like. Be on the lookout. We pass up a pid, we get denied Permission on, you know, our PID and you know, who we believe to be the bomber and who he's traveling with disappear into a crowd of literally hundreds of thousands of people. And we're passing it up. We had multiple instances that day. We had multiple ID probes in the days leading up to it. We had been shot at in our tower in the days leading up to it. Like two days prior, maybe even in the morning of like, we had been shot at. One of our buddies was up in the tower. And I'm climbing up the ladder and like, our first sergeant was up there and I hear crack. And I like, climb up the tower. I'm like, yo, and I see my buddy slamming the window shut. And I have a picture of it and videos of it too. Like, literally 762round impacted. He's leaned his head against the tower window and he's literally like looking through the camera, looking through the spotting scope and round impacts where his head is. And the window's open. Like it's a sliding window. So it's open right here, but it was bulletproof glass. So he slams it shut and we're like, we're not opening that window again. And it's just like two and three story buildings. You pass it up. They're like, yeah, guys, sorry, sorry. Like, don't worry about it, you know, and you can't. We're like, hey, can we push squads out into the neighborhood? Like, can we do this? Can we provide more standoff distance? And like, as the days got closer to the 26th, they closed the distance. The standoff distance goes from, you know, 15 meters, 25 meters to like now the crowd is right there at the base of the gate, right at the base of our tower.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why the did they do like, just for reference, we had a 300 meter, 300 meters meters. Even if we're on a patrol or if we're on a convoy, we still had, hey, if you cross this hundred meter line, you will get lit the up.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And that they intentionally closed it though. Yeah, so. So the 15 meters, 15 meters from a base. I had this explained. And so. Well, it's not even that. It just, it got right. It was right on top of us at that point.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's what I'm saying.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. And so, and so they explained to us that this was years past, like after I testified in front of Congress. And then they, they didn't want to call it reopening the investigation, but they did a supplemental review is what they called it. They did a supplemental review. So the government's like, hey, we investigated ourselves. We found ourselves not guilty again, so don't worry about it. Yeah. And they came in and they said, they're like, hey, so all these hundreds of photos, like, all these things that happened, I was like, you know, we asked like, hey, where did all the photos of X, Y and Z go? Like, the bomber, who he was traveling with, with the bodies, all these things are like, oh, those photos, those videos, they don't exist anywhere inside of the DODs or any allied nations intelligence database. They're gone. We can't find them. We don't know what happened to them. I was like, wow, that's really convenient. Heard that one before. Yeah, crazy. And. And that's the thing. Like, I said that too. It's like, I'm not the first person to get blown up. We're not the first people to lose friends. Like this has. It's just a cycle, unfortunately. And it's like, it's a. It's. It's war, right? Like, we go to foreign countries and war for good and bad reasons. A lot more bad than good, maybe. Whatever you believe in. But I know I've helped people. All of us help people. We. We saved 140,000, 135,000 Afghans that, you know, we worked with families, kids that have an opportunity at life that they never would have had otherwise. They're in our country, some of them, yes, there's that side of it. It's like some of them, probably not for the best reasons, but we've given people an opportunity in life that they never would have had otherwise. And even if it was for a day, a year, 10 years, they had an opportunity to read, write, get an education, learn. It's something that they never would have had the opportunity to otherwise. And people and culture that have only known suffering. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, that was a long winded. Still not answering your question. But they, they closed the dispersion down to say, hey, you know the reasoning. Multiple years later, after everything happened, they were like, oh, they closed a dispersion because if an ID went off down here, people got shot at down here in the canal. We didn't want them to have to drag casualties farther.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right? Well, it's not our problem.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's a wall. Like, there's a wall here. I mean, we've got combat engineers, we've got X, Y and Z. We can't put a ladder, we can't put a bridge, we can't do something. We can't knock down a wall to make it so that's not the case. Like, that's just another, you know, you spent three years thinking about how to answer the question, and I could poke a hole through it in 10 minutes like that. That's.

[Brandon Herrera]

But we had. When we got hit out in sector. It is. You're doing everything thing. You're pulling gaudier. It's like when that striker blew up, it's like, okay, we don't have a medevac striker. We're pulling Gaudier. He's going on the next striker. They're driving back to base, and they're just hauling ass with a couple other strikers. We're up top now, and then we're securing the vehicle, but guess what? We're not going like, whoa, hey, this one thing happened way out here. Now we have to move everything and change everything to make sure everyone's safe, just in case. Case. Because you. As you said, it's like now thousands, tens of thousands of people are right at the wall, and you have. That's the most terrifying thing. Especially when, hey, we have a bummer.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

We have a vbid advanced knowledge of it. Yeah, exactly. Well, and that's. That's it. Exactly. Like, they're like, oh, well, the dod, right. They're like, there's nothing that we could have done bad out. You like, does it say the line? Oh, he was on our radar. Yeah, yeah. And. Or then you got John Kirby at the time, you know, State Department. Like, he. And I quote, he was like the af, like, regard in regards to Afghanistan withdrawal and the pull out. He was like, I didn't see any chaos for my perch. Those are words that came out of his mouth. That you didn't see any chaos from your perch.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, all right, dude, we had Cody. I was gonna say it's like, no, I just.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I was just like, what the. Dude, it's just people. People just. I mean, delusional quite literally.

[Brandon Herrera]

But look at. Look at Clint Romacha. Look at. You had a big shout out to Secretary of the Army General George.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, Randy has been amazing, but that is proper leadership. That dude, he was the one that called out. He's like, why the are we in this bowl? And it was everyone around who's like, no, we need that. It's like, no, we're in a bowl. This is not a great place. And then, oh, holy, look what happened because of that.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And you had one cop, Keating or. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And General George was against that place. He was like the first one to, like, raise attention. They tried to push Back because of it.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's a. It was that cop Keating is a case study. At least it was when I went through the advanced infantry course. Like, it's a case study on, like, don't do this. Like, literally, just like, do not do this.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sun Shoe had preached about this 2000 years ago, and you have that. And then when a good general and thank God he is in the position he isn't now it like, he was trying to bring light. This is stupid. And then everyone else. The bad leadership that failed. Forward. No, we need that.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, yes. Sun Zu. Always put your base in an ambush. Ambushable hole from 360 position.

[Brandon Herrera]

Great fighting area. Make sure sun blind you every which way.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I too, have read the Art of War.

[Brandon Herrera]

The brown man come.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I actually. I met. I went on a black bear hunt. This is. I'll lighten the mood for a second. Let me get back to not life. But I went Freedom Hunters. Incredible organization on if you guys ever heard of it. But army veteran, just. He came back, had a lot of friends lose his. Lose their lives at war. And he's like, I want to take vets hunting and shooting and stuff. And I went on a black bear hunt in British Columbia last year with one of the guys from my sniper team with them, and it was like, six other American vets and two Canadian snipers, and. And they're. They're vets as well. But I'm just, like, sitting there, and there's this, like, older dude. He's like. Like, he's got a little weight on him. Nice. Complete goofball. And then all of a sudden, just comes up. He was like, yeah, I was dropping off blah, blah, blah. Over cop keating out of 160th sore. And I was like, what, though? Like, all right. And. And then we're putting down black bears together. But, yeah, it was cool. It was just like. I never met anyone from. From that. Like, yeah, he was like, yeah, we were just dropping off the side of little birds and sh. Shooting with MP5s out of the little bird. Yeah. Damn, dude. All right. I didn't know you had it like.

[Brandon Herrera]

That, but I was judging you first.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. For real. I was unfamiliar with the old game. Yeah, you're gonna have some army vets with you guys. Like, all right, cool. We'll stay over here. But.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, man. Wild.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was cool. But, yeah, now we kind of wrap it up on that. We.

[Brandon Herrera]

The.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

The 26th pops up, and, you know. You know, we've got that situation. We've got intel on, you know, who's going to be there. Who's at the gate? Like, everyone. All of the. We disseminated all the information down to the, you know, ground, ground level. Like, hey, like, there's a super bomb in the area. This is going on. We had multiple times throughout the day where it would be like. Like, stopped and, like, dudes took a knee, got behind cover and, like, hey, IDs gonna go off. And then they're like, all right, yep. No, don't worry about it. Like, go back to business. And so then we'd go and we'd start pulling our refugees. And. And at this point now, like, globally, it's been broadcasted. Hey, Abby, gate forward, Abigail's the only gate that's open. Like, they're allowing media at the gate. They're allowing a lot of people who shouldn't be there at the gate, like, posting social media and stuff. And. And, like, it was crazy. Like, our. Our tertiary comms, like, communication plan was like, we were literally using signal on our phones. Like, we were talking to people on Instagram, Snapchat, whatever it is, through signal to, like, pull out refugees. Like, hey, I'm with so and so. And I pulled, like, I worked with this interpreter and his family back in 2010. Like, they're going to be here on this day. Like, can you pull them out? We're like, yeah, of course. And throughout those days, I mean, I can't say it enough, but, like, the praise that I give to the Marines, the airmen, the sailors, the soldiers that were out there, and the Brits, even, like, the Brits were awesome. It was just like, I mean, we had. We set up razor wire, and then you'd have women that we'd have to literally, like, State Department be like, hey, you guys need to walk this family of four and these children back out towards the Taliban and, like, go send them on their way. Like, they don't have proper documentation. So here we are, and you've got women just, like, clawing and kids screaming and crying in your arms, like, literally hitting them. Yeah, literally. And, like, and then, like, we had women and, like, women, like babies getting thrown over the walls and impacting the ground and being killed on impact because people are so desperate for freedom that they're. And getting away from tyranny. And that's what people never understand. Like, it's easy to preach your oppressed from a free country, but you can't preach your oppressed from an oppressed country. You'll be murdered, tortured, whatever it may be. Like, Americans, most Americans will never truly Understand the freedom that they have to moan and complain about the things that they do.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I. Dude, brother in Christ, that is one of the biggest statements you can say. And I don't think enough people appreciate what we have here because you've seen. You've seen the ugly side of man. And I think, unfortunately, I do believe I. More people need to see that and experience it, because you will appreciate everything we have here.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Well, and that's. And that's the luxury, being American. Like, I. Like, I by no means believe that you need to put on a uniform to serve your country. You can serve your country and community in a million different ways. Outside of military service or outside of being a police officer, outside of being a firefighter. You can do it in countless ways. And it's. You know, it's. It's necessary. Like, people. You know, I think we're definitely. We all see it. We're at a turning point, for sure, but it's. Yeah, I mean, you have to work for the life that we have, and people want the life that we have. I mean, like, I got to see that in 2021. We all did. But we literally had women we were sending, like, families, kids, we were sending back out directly to the Taliban. Custodians, state departments, like, you can't. They're not vetted. They can't come through whatever it is. They don't have proper documentation. And then women jump on the razor wire and they're trying to slit their throats with razor wire. Like, please. Or they're like, grabbing the muzzle of your rifle like, please kill me. Like, please kill me, soldier. Please kill me, Marine. Like, what? You're like. You executing me here will be like, literally, like, saying this, like, screaming, like, please kill me here so that I don't have to go get tortured by the Taliban. Like, please. It'll be a gift.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, this is a mercy.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Like that. And it was constant. Like, come, like, constant every time. College girls on TikTok told me it's a great place to visit. I know.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, they were supporting it with emojis.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's. We're the bad guys. Yeah, we. I. So I. On the 26th, it's around, you know, 5 to 6pm and Staff Sergeant Darren Taylor Hoover. I'm on. I'm on the gun. I'm on the sass, you know, observing down towards the Taliban checkpoint, and got one of my other buddies up there observing the rest of the crowd. And there's, like, the ladder. Well, so we're on the second story. And There's a ladder. Well right down here to my right. And he's like, hey, snipes. Like, you up there? And I'm like, yeah, man, what's up? And he's like, hey, there's an interpreter down here. Half our team was on a resupply back farther in the base, and we were, you know, we were on, you know, shooter, spotter pair up there, and we were waiting for a specific interpreter in his family to come through. And my assistant team leader, Dalton, was like. We had a conversation, and I was like, hey, like, I'll keep a lookout for these guys and go get them if they come through. And Hoover's like, hey, there's a. There's a guy down here with a sign, and it says, like, a bunch of random. But, like, we told him, like, hey, if, you know, like, any. Anyone that comes through, like, hold up a sign, right? XYZ code or letters or whatever on it to come through. And so we'll pull you with, like, high powered optics. We can spot him in the crowd and whatnot. And so Justin Governall's there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, but I want my circum. Sk. How you get here, Justin?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Dude, that kills me. Dude, that was like, he's in. He's in Afghanistan. Come to my comedy show with the laugh out loud.

[Brandon Herrera]

What are you doing?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh. Oh, yeah, we. Oh, my God.

[Brandon Herrera]

Gosh, I'm glad we're. You're like, this is weird to me.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No, it's. It's so funny.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, this is a different way to do this.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, it's so funny. We. So we. No, it's. That's nice. Like I was saying, we. Like, I went on Zach's, you know, podcast, and. And now it's nice to actually be around some funny people. So I. Colazo. Colazo texted me. He's like, hey, make sure Tyler bullies Zach. No, I was waiting for you. I got. I got more. I'm saying. But, yeah, no, I love him, but, yeah, so we. I go down there. He's like, hey, we got so and so with the sign down here. I'm like, hey, yeah, Like, I got it. And my buddy. We had one of our other guys in our team come up, take over on the gun and obs, and I go down with Hoover. I grab my rifle. We walk out, and we're talking. He's like, one of the only dudes in the battalion that, like, had been there and done that, you know, once or twice before in Afghanistan. And talking to him, and he's like, man, this is Crazy. And, you know, he's a staff sergeant. And I'm like, yeah. Like, this is crazy. He's like, this is unlike anything I've ever done before overseas. And I'm like, this is the only thing I've done. And yeah, this is wild. And so we walk out, you know, 50 to 70 yards out past this chain link fence, walk into the canal, and it's like 10 to 12ft of dirt, little knee high canal wall, and then the canal itself and then another little 2 foot high canal wall, all 10 to 12ft of dirt and all the neighborhoods right here. And so at that point, it had built up so much that it's literally tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people. Like, people, that canal. We say canal, but it's just, we call it the canal. It's just sewage. It's just filled with sewage. And it was completely like nut to butt filled with people trying to climb out of it to get over to us. And then it's filled up all the way to this side of the fence and wall and all the way to this side. And so I pull out, I pull out this interpreter, I pull out his brother, and he's like, I, you know, we do a little hasty search on him. And I see the sign that's got like Dalton's name on it, like two slash one. And they were stay so STA Scout sniper platoons teams. It's surveillance target acquisition. And he wrote like 2/1 recon on it or something, you know, so like not what we were. But it's kind of funny. I was like, oh yeah, this is cool. School folded it up, put my pocket. I'm like, let me give this to Dalton later. And I'm like, hey, I'm gonna take you guys over to the like, main search area. And he's like, wait, wait, like my family, my family. And I was like, yeah, like, your brother's right here. And he's like, no, no, no. And he pulls out American passports. And I'm like, like four or five more of them. Like, holy. Like, he's got like a wife and kids. And he's like, my wife and kids are like down in the canal. And I'm like, dude, like, you were told to like be, be here at this time with your whole family. Because, like, at that point the gate was already supposed to be closed. We knew the threat was in the area. And in my head I'm like, there's no way his family's getting through. Like, he's like, yeah, they're down in the canal that way. And I'm like, all right, I'll stay down here in the canal with you for, you know, 20 or 30 minutes. But then I need to get back to what I was doing. I'll make sure another Marine is aware of what's going on so he can help you out and keep an eye out for your family. So I grabbed him or his brother. I don't remember which. And I put him up on, like, onto the canal wall. And I'm standing against the canal wall. Like, 10 minutes goes by, and just flash, flash bang, and I get slapped by the hand of God. Just, like, massive wave of pressure hits me. And, you know, like, I explained the amount of people there. It was just instantly 200 people killed. Instantly. The dude stepped out 2 to 3 meters away, directly in front of us, stepped out of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, and detonated what they say is equivalent to 20 to 30 pounds of C4 steel back plate. C4. 20, 30 pounds of C4, and then, like, hundreds of steel ball bearings. So he made himself a human directional charge, human claymore, essentially, and from 2 to 3 meters away, detonated and directed it right at all of us in our tower. And so, like, we've got the two windows open in the tower. Our dudes in the tower get blasted off the gun. Like, there's, like, brain matter covering the sat, like, suppressor of our sass, and, like, they couldn't even clean it off. Like, it literally just, like, fused to the gun. And I. I didn't find this out until, like, maybe like, a year or two ago. Like, yeah, probably two years ago. But a buddy of mine who was wounded shared with me that actually, like, before I, like, like, open my eyes and started doing the thing, one of the Marines, when the blast went off, like, multiple Marines got hit with cs. Their CS gas canister grenades got exploded on all of us, on top of everyone. Spicy air. Yeah, exactly. Spicy air and aids.

[Brandon Herrera]

I did not know that.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. And so a lot of people thought it was a dirty bomb, right? Like, initially, they're like. And, like, right when the blast went off, the other half of our team had just pulled up, and they were behind the tower. So, like, everyone behind the tower got hit with the overpressure and the blast and just not, like, shrapnel. And so they get rocked. And over pressure is the bad, dude. It's. It is the bad because it fries your brain, fries your organ. TBI Fridays through Monday. Like, good shirt. Yeah, it was right there. Shameless list. Plug A little shame, but not much. Yeah, I'm proud of that one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Everyone's crying as they're buying stuff.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. No. So blast goes off and. And like, the other half of our team, they run to the tower. They know, like, Dalton's jobs consolidate, like personnel. Like, he's in charge of personnel. Chaz is. Is in charge of dealing with, you know, everything else. And they go to the tower and they're like, okay, we got U5. Where the. Jorge. And where's Tyler and Jorge, our team corps? He was walking out to meet me. So he walks out and he's on the other side of the chain link fence. Just on the other side of it. Blast goes off. He gets hit by all the overpressure. No shrapnel. So he gets knocked on his ass. He gets up, Marines are on fire. And like, literally, like, quite literally on fire. And he's just like, like medic mode, right? Like Corman mode. Just patting dudes out, throwing tourniquets on, triaging casualties left and right. And they find Jorge and then Adam, one of my buddies in the tower. Like, I remember, like, as I'm like, leaning up and I. I knew right away. It's literally like Saving Private Ryan. Like, I knew right away. I was like, right here. Right ear drum got ripped to pieces. Just like super high pitched ringing, like, and, like, left ears muffled. And I can just hear people. People screaming everywhere. And I'm like, as I'm trying to open my eyes and struggling to open them through the CS and like, taking a blast to my eyeballs. I. I'm like, holy. I wasn't wearing any eye pro either. No, I.

[Brandon Herrera]

Pro.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No ear pro, as most of us weren't. But. Yeah, no, dude. Yeah, they're. Damn. We'll get NJP'd again. What a mother that would be. You're back. Bringing you back in to court martial you. Yeah, no. And so. So I'm like, holy. I knew right away. I was like, I just got blown up. But right before I was like, open my eyes, someone came over and my whole plate carrier was on fire. So they, like, patted out the fire and literally, like, I guess I was unconscious at the time, but he's like, yeah, he's dead. And ran away, like, to someone else to go triage another casualty. And so I'm like, trying to open my eyes. I'm trying to come to and I'm like, literally trying to sit up and like, out stretching my hands just like, holy. And it was such a weird feeling, like, that whole the adrenaline Hits you and you, like, everything just slows down. Like, I feel like I was on the ground for hour, two hours, and it was like minutes. Like, literally everything slows down. I'm in. Your brain's just super. Just like firing every nerve endings firing on all cylinders. And I'm like, holy. I was in disbelief at first. I didn't feel any pain initially. Like, right when it happened, I was just like, holy. Like, I just got blown up.

[Brandon Herrera]

Up.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And I'm, like, trying to sit up. And I'm like, I can't stand up. I can't sit up. I'm like, putting my hand out and I can see in the tower, like, Adam, he's directing our team leader to me, and I'm like, holy. And like, my whole stomach got ripped open. I lost my left kidney, left testicle exploded. I lost 140-157cm of large and small intestine. 2/3 of my traverse colon. I took 150 ball bearings into my body. Nothing hit my face. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

150 ball bearings.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. What size were, like, the ball bearings? Sorry, I'm trying to give you a good reference point. Like, maybe you got that little. That little cap right there. So, like, I would say, like the tip, like that circle. Yeah, that size. And just a little bit bigger. Like, just like, slightly bigger than, like, a BB gun. I don't know why. Straight.

[Brandon Herrera]

I always.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

They're like, like. I mean, I can't make a perfect circle, but, like, that big, probably like, like about that big.

[Brandon Herrera]

Skateball.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Skate bearings. Almost like a little bit bigger than, like, skate bearings.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're a little bit bigger than this.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

But, Yeah, I took 150. So everything. I took three or four, like, into my Kevlar, like, into my helmet. Nothing hit my face. So I'm still pretty. Or lie to me, please. But. And then everything else hit me from my shoulder down to my thighs pretty much.

[Brandon Herrera]

So how much did your body armor absorb?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

A ton. So my rifle, my M4A1 was like, took through the steel and aluminum, like, just straight through it. Multiple into the. Like, through the rco, ripped it apart. And then the soft arm and the plate carriers, like, stopped everything that hit my chest. Like, completely stopped everything hit my chest. Same with the helmet moment.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's what they're for. People don't realize it's like, yeah, it's here to protect right here. Because you need right here to live.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

100. Yep. Like, yeah, like, both my lungs were fine, but my liver, spleen, Bladder gallbladder, yeah, everything was lacerated and punctured. My, you know, I took ball bearings through my wrist, through my, into my shoulder. You can see that whole scar. So that scar goes from, from the palm of my hand all the way up my forearm, through my bicep and into my chest. And so that, that was later. Like I had compartment syndrome, so they had to manually release all the pressure. My arm blew up, like bigger than the size of my leg and all the muscles and tendons were ripping off, but my right arm was blasted. My whole stomach got literally ripped open. Bigger than a softball sized hole, like straight to my organs. And I like, I'm trying to sit up and I'm completely bleeding out, like from everywhere. And I'm like, like, holy. Like, I can't, like really just like in disbelief, can't believe it's happened. And I'm like trying to get up, trying to crawl, can't move. And I'm literally, I'm going unconscious, like losing consciousness. And we start getting shot at from the neighborhood and farther down the canal. And like, one of my buddies got shot. He like, got blown up, got stood up, and then got shot through the shoulder and shot a gunman off the roof. And. Yeah, and so it was ISIS K that blew us up. But multiple marines responded accordingly to the gunfire. And then, I mean, everyone was just dragging casualties, triaging, and I'm, I'm bleeding out. I'm going unconscious. I remember like literally laying out there on the ground and it was like almost peaceful. It was, it was weird. I wasn't like, scared. I just, I was honestly in disbelief. Like I, I had that whole like your life flashes before your eyes. Like I had that like, like, man, I've lived a good life, like laying there on the ground, like, I couldn't move and I was just like, you know what? I've done my best. And like, I thought that laying on the ground and still, like, wasn't in any pain at first, couldn't move anymore. I knew I was up because I was trying to crawl and I was like kind of falling into my arm. I was like, man, why, why is my arm not working? And I like, look, I'm like, oh, that's why it's not working. And it was just like very matter of fact. Like it was there, but it was up really bad. And I was like, oh, that's why it's not working. And so then I tried to crawl on my left side on my elbow, and I've got ball bearings through my wrist. My hand. And.

[Brandon Herrera]

And.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And then I just couldn't move anymore because I had so much trauma to my body. And I'm going unconscious. Like, I'm literally feeling my life, like, dying, and I'm losing consciousness, and I know I'm like, damn, like, I'm gonna die here on the dirt in Afghanistan. I was like, but, you know, I've. I've lived a good life, and I start going unconscious and I'm just like, damn. Like, literally just thinking, like, in. In disbelief relief. And I just hear Chaz, my team leader, he's screaming my name. He's like, tyler. Tyler. And he, like, as he was in the tower, consolidating everyone and trying to figure out where everyone was at, he was like, give me Tyler's bolt cutters, the ones that we took, like, early on out of that shipping container. And he grabbed my bolt cutters and he just sprinted out there for me. Cut a hole in the fence that cut off the casualty carrying distance by like 100 yards, which is significant when set. Seconds matter. And he. He's screaming, like, running down the chain link fence, and I can hear him yelling my name. And. And like, it was just like all the life breathed back in my body, and I was just like, holy. Like, I'm not gonna die here. Like, Chaz is gonna get to me. Like, holy. But in that moment, like, all the. It was like my body recognized what actually happened. And all the pain hit me and I was like, holy, please me. Like, I was. I was in so much pain. Like, more. More pain than I could ever possibly like, even comprehend still. And. But I was in so much pain all over. Stomach's ripped open. Everything's ripped open. And I was just like, holy. Like, like, not let me die. I was like, literally thinking. I remember, I was like, please, just me, like, holy. And I'm, you know, yelling, screaming, slobbering on myself. Chaz gets to me. They're putting that whole, like, nugget drill, like you're a boot, and they put tourniquets on all your limbs and make your buddy fucking carry you around. Like, that was me. They put tourniquets on my limbs. They're like, how the fuck are we gonna move this guy? Like, his stomach's ripped open, his guts are hanging out. And so my buddy Silas ran and grabbed a riot shield that when the blast went off, like, one of the British left and he grabbed a right shield and they literally threw me on a riot shield. And like, four, six of them carried me out on the right Shield right back behind the tower. They got there. I don't remember being carried from the X to behind the tower, but I remember, like, in and out. I'm, like, going the last stages of shock right behind the tower. And Jorge gets to me because he's like, after. He's triaging everyone. He's like, oh. Oh. Like, I was going out there to meet Tyler, like, in the canal. He gets to me. And I remember seeing him, and I don't remember if I said it or if I was like, just thought it, but I was like, jorge's a corpsman. Like, Jorge's a doc. Like, he has drugs. And I'm like, jorge, give me drugs. Like, give me drugs. I remember trying to, like, reach for him, and he's like. He's like, lay the down, Tyler. Like, he's like, lay the down. I'm, like, sitting up. They're cutting open my pants. Chaz and my buddy Emmett, they're cutting on my pants, and I'm, like, trying to sit up, and I'm like, I need to see my. I need to see my d. And they're like, you're fine. I'm like, okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

And.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And. And then, like, I. I was out. I guess I was out. And Chaz, like, cuts open my pants, and. And he, like. He says he's like, nice, Tyler. He's like, nice.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And so, you know, that happens. And Jorge is slapping me awake with the whole, you know, keep him awake, because that's. That's what was happening. Like, I was dying. And. And then Chasker. My name, like, was like, oh, like, I need to live. And so Jorge slapped my face, and he's getting ready to push drugs, and they're like, no. Like, he's dead. I'm, like, in the last stages of shock, like, going in and out of consciousness, and they're putting chest tubes in me on the ground. And the mo. The medical officers, like, we have to move him. Like, don't push medicine. Like, we have to move him. Like he's going to die. Like, he is dying. And so they move me. They stop at the shock trauma platoon. They stabilize me for just another enough few minutes to get me over to the. To the roll two to the hospital. And then my surgeon operated on me for 13 to 14 hours straight. From there on. And over 48 hours, like, he was the one. He, like, ringing ball bearings out of my intestines. And. And over 48 hours, I had 58 liters of blood transfused. I didn't die there. I Was soda. Yeah, they got. They got up to me. That's good. Thank you. Americans will use anything but the metric system.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, when could they actually put in painkillers? Because a lot of people we had. It was Braxton. Got the S vest with Braxton. No, he had to wait 45 minutes. Minutes. And he, like, got.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It was a while. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, you were the same.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I was out. Yeah. Like my buddy from the gate to the hospital, like. And when I got to the hospital, they put me on the ground. You know what I mean? There's just like bodies, like lines of bodies. And to state this plainly, like, that killed 200 people. Thirteen Americans, most importantly, 11 Marines, one soldier and one sailor who will never be forgotten. But there was about 45 wounded total. And like, I think seven or eight of us that were like, critically wounded. Yeah. So we. I. I got to the role too. I laid on the ground and Deegan Page, who was killed in action, Corporal Deacon Page, My foot was lying on top of his shoulders. You know, we're all like, literally just hunt a hundred bodies on the ground as they're trying to pull him into the OR and work on them. And. And they. He was checked on. He was. He was dead. He had passed and my foot was laying on his shoulder. And so, you know, my surgeon went to me and he started operating on me and he. Or he started looking at me and he was like, holy. Like, he is still alive, like, and he's still breathing on his own. Like, how the is he alive? And what I was told is that I think it's the armies internationals, like the international survivability scale. And out of the like, 150 plus wounds injuries that I had, I had 60 that were deemed non survivable according to the army's measurement of like, do we push medicine? Do we give blood? Do we do any interventions to try and save his life? Like, 60 of them were like, no, do not do it. And my surgeon was like, I have to do this. Like, I don't know why. You know, something's telling me. And according to him, according to every single medical provider in my line of care, nurses to doctors to 45 surgeries later, they were like, the only. Outside of my friends and him and everyone operating on me, the only reason that I survived the point of injury, the point of blast, was because of how physically fit I was at the point of injury. I was 210lb lean and had been training for what I thought was going to be a career in special operations. And you know, it ended up being. To prepare me for the worst day of my life, you know, and that whole, you can never train too hard for a job that can kill you. Like, I. I always said that I instilled into my junior Marines, I instilled into my dudes in the platoon. And, you know, I'm. I'm proud to say that I lived that honestly. And, you know, it was. It's crazy to think about, but, yeah, like, they're like, there's no way. Like, even when I got to Walter Reed, I'd have like 30 to 50 doctors and nurses and medical providers a day in my room at an ICU and shit. Because they had not seen an injury this severe, like, injuries this severe for like 10, 10 plus years. They were like, what the. How is this guy alive? And then like, pretty cool tagline for you, though. Too fit to die, dude. It's. It's nuts.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's his Tinder profile.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I. Yeah, I got. So I get to. They fly me from Kabul to Germany, and in Germany, I died two or three times. They flew my mom out. The DOD called my mom and they're like, hey, there's been a complex attack. Blah, blah, blah. My little brother was actually, like, getting ready for school the morning of and was like, hey, mom, isn't that where Ty's at? And. And they saw the blast, but they hadn't heard anything. So then by the end of the day, they had called her and let her know, but they had just kept saying, like, oh, he's critically ill, whatever. Critically wounded. And a lot, you know, people have died, people been wounded, complex attack. They were shot out there, blown up, whatever. And then the DOD tried to retract that statement months, years later, but they told her like, hey, don't fly to Germany. You're going to your body in the air. Yeah, they were. They tried to retract that statement. Yeah. They told everyone who was wounded and killed in action, all their families the truth, that there had been a complex attack, that we had been shot at and blown up. And then they, you know, tried. They retracted that statement. They're like, no, this didn't happen. And even though the doctors. Doctor's notes on multiple friends, multiple Marines who had been shot with 762. Like, they're in their paperwork, in their EAs, like, everything. All the stuff they got when they asked all their medical paperwork, like, it says, like, ball bearings here, gunshot wounds here. When you said your buddy shot a dude that was shooting at you guys. Yeah, yeah. They. The Wounded Warrior Battalion on the Walter Rage was a weird time for me because, like, I was the only. I was the only person there. One that was like. Like not just my age. Like, there were people my age and younger and most older, but like, I was the only one at Walter Reed there at that time. Like, everyone had left Walter Reed within two to three weeks. And I was still in the ICU for like two, two and a half months. And then I was an inpatient for like another two months or whatever it was. But when I got out and was doing PT and ot, like, I was the only one there that was my age that had been like combat wounded, neither here nor there. But it was different time. Like other dudes have been through. And there, you know, be like 10, 20, 30, 40 people at a time that were wounded in the. In the war. And my buddies that were wounded that went over to. That were still in and went over to the Wounded Warrior Regiment on the West Coast. They were getting out and they were being told, like, don't talk about this. Like, don't. Don't say this happened this way or you're gonna lose your benefits. Like, oh, off.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're threatening with.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah, yeah, they threaten them with their benefits. Yeah, like. Like they. It was. It was bad. Like, it. It's still bad. Like, I mean, it's. It's not been answered for. No one's been held accountable. And. And that's the thing. Like, it's. It's one of those. The whole situation, it's decades and decades of, you know, act poor action and inaction that led to this point. But even then, like, in a moment where, like, we had intel on what we knew was going to happen and then it did happen, and then people are like, oh, no.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Like, no, we didn't know that. But every single person serving there in that time knew that, whether it was three letter agencies down to the dude on the ground, you're going to tell me that. That that's not what happened.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, it's privates knowing what is going on and what information has been disseminated across. I mean, it's like, we didn't do that.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, you look at. Ah, dang it. Who's the football player?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Oh, Pat Patillman.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, all that. And it took the family.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Pushing and still it took forever to.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Admit what actually happened.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. And that's what's wild about. It's like, why cover up?

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

These people are sacrifice. Like, the women and men are sacrifice. They've sacrificed their Lives for this. And the least you can do is.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

That's 100% it. Because the truth is politically inconvenient. Yep, it absolutely is. And that's the thing is, it's like. But I said this earlier when we started. Like, it's. It's a war fighting organization. Right? Like, we know people are going to die. We know people are going to get hurt. We know people are going to be severely hurt physically and mentally. But if we don't learn from the things that happen, then how are we going to get better? How are we going to get stronger? How are we going to get more leaders? Lethal. Like, we know people are gonna die. Yeah. That's the reality of war. Like, you. You should learn from the mistakes. And like, we're sitting there. I'm in my tower. In our tower. Like, you know, the administration goes on and is like, we'll never see Chinooks take politicians off an embassy again, like in Saigon. And then same day or the next day, we watch Chinooks land on the embassy in Afghanistan and pull politicians out. Was that the same Chinook? I don't know if it was, but it looked the exact same. I couldn't tell if that was real or not. Somebody said it was literally the same. I mean, I believe it. It's. Yeah, it's. I mean, it's unfortunate, man. It's.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's all right, man. Like, it's the one thing I don't. I hate, like, politics, getting political. Anything. But that is one thing where, you know now.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah. It's like those.

[Brandon Herrera]

The government, the military, you get to see the shitty side of that. And they don't give a. About you in the VA and you're like, yo, y' all can go yourselves. If you think I'm going to care about you in the any aspect until you stand up and actually fight for shit we have done or put our lives on the. We put our lives on the line for. And then that to happen.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then when you get back, and then there's all, oh, hey. For the va. Oh, well. And we'll give you. Let me see one. How's your. You work, right. You get 50% disability. Congrats, man. Like, get the. Out of here.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I don't know if I can name a single group of, you know, not regardless of political affiliation, but a single group of people that trusts the government less than combat bets. Yeah. 100%.

[Brandon Herrera]

Literally.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Not.

[Brandon Herrera]

Unfortunate.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Like, the whole. You know, I love my country, but I hate my government, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

They. They. Yep.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I'm not left or right. I'm American. You know, that's it.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, you support. And it sucks because those are your brothers and sisters that you deployed with and with. And it's hard finding that anywhere else like it is. I think that's what a lot of vets struggle with, is finding that outside their military career. And that's what's scary because you can. You can't find that again. And when you do, you're like, okay, yeah, but unfortunately, a lot don't. And that's. It just sucks. But I will praise you for having the balls to tell that story, to honor the individuals that are part of that story, and then to, like, trying to hold people accountable. Unsub's really good at that. We're really.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

We try to be. It's kind of. It's kind of a hobby. Kind of a hobby.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I appreciate that very much. I mean. I mean, quite literally, you know, I've never. I've never myself battled with Survivor's Guild or anything like that. It's. And. And maybe that's because of how up I got physically or, you know, because my. Because friends and Marines died right next to me. I mean, it's. I don't know what it is, but I. I just would hope that. That one of my buddies would stand up and tell the truth if I wasn't here anymore, you know? I mean, it's the least I can do. It's like, even the. Even the testifying in front of Congress in 2023, like, so especially the families, that's what ate me up. Like, so many people are like, oh, this is incredible. This is amazing that you went and did this. And I'm like, no. You know what's sad is that accountability is so foreign in our military and our government and our. In the political culture of our country, that me going before the House Representatives and the House Foreign Affairs Committee and telling the truth about what happened seems like this amazing thing. And it's not. Someone with way more rank and weight on their caller should have come forth and told the truth and. And been like, yeah, we made a mistake. Like, people died. We made a mistake. They're already gone, so why don't we try and do better? And I went and I had the opportunity, very, very thankfully had the opportunity to go tell the truth. And. And, like, it. It blew up. But it was just like, no, it's not this great thing. It's just what should be done. Like, it's. It's a responsibility to my friends who aren't here anymore to the America, the great Americans that we lost and the tens of thousands of Americans that we've lost and wars past. I mean, we. It's, you know, if we're not going to get better from our mistakes and what the are we doing?

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, it's the standard. It should be the standard of what happens.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't think you have, like, survivor guilt is. I don't think you have that because you are doing that. It is. Here is my mission, here's my next job, and I'm gonna do this the best I can. And you are also in that level of. With those individuals. And I think you have the same mindset. Maybe I could be off, but it's the same mindset as my buddies would be pissed if I was depressed or sad about the. I'm gonna be sad. I'm gonna mourn them.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Then I'm gonna move on. I'm gonna have absolutely crush the individuals that made this situation even a possibility.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

It's. It's okay to hurt, but it's not okay to stay there. And, you know, I mean, I've got it on my shirt. I fucking, I live by that, man. I'll. I, you know, I'm a casualty of war, but I'll never be a victim of what's happened to me. And, you know, I knew the nature of my job. I knew the risks of my job. Like, yeah, it shouldn't have happened, but it did. You know, that's the reality. It did. I can't change that. And so why the am I. If I. If I don't feel sorry for myself, I'm not gonna feel sorry for you. You know, I just, like, life's too short, man. I. I just trying to make a good impact. And, you know, that's. That's it. Like, I. I find. I guess. I guess the best way I can say is like, if, you know, we would have no frame of reference for how truly beautiful life can be if we did not truly understand the hardship and the pain that also follows in life. If things are great all the time, then it would just be whatever. If things are bad all the time, that'd be whatever. But we have to go through the hard. And it's up to you. It's up to anyone, whether it's big or small, your pain, all of you. The worst thing that you go through is the worst thing that you go through. The worst thing that I go through is the worst thing that I go through. And all of our own pain Trauma and struggle and strife is relative to what we've been through in life. So perspective it is. Absolutely. It's 100 perspective.

[Brandon Herrera]

Peaks and valleys.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Yep. Well, we appreciate you coming on and telling your story, brother. I appreciate you guys very much. Thanks for having me. Seriously, it was our pleasure. It's an honor. Yeah. Hopefully I didn't sound like an idiot on here, but that's what we do. That's our job.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. That's the cross we bear.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Let us be stupid, dude. It's the albatross around our neck.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was going to make one quick joke because on that camera, it's framed with how this is holding it, it says, ever the victim. I think, like, no, never.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I think on April Fools, I'm probably going to do, like, always a victim, you know?

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, yes, please. We will help sell that for. Appreciate it, dude. Thank you so much, dude. I cannot. The. I will. Loss of words. It's individuals like yourself and through the trials and tribulations you have been through that motivate the out of me and make me appreciate my life and make me want to do better. So just thank you, Tyler, for everything you have done so far.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

No thanks ever needed. And it's daily. I mean, you guys do it yourselves. Like we talked about at lunch. It's, you know, you got that. I've got hundreds by now, if not thousands of DMs. Just like, man, you're the reason I myself today. It's like, that's why I fucking live my life the way that I do. You know, it's to hopefully stop that one person or just quite literally give them perspective. Like, you know what? Yeah, I'm feeling shitty. Bad things have been happening in my life. But there's a line. It's like, am I gonna feel sorry for myself and give up, or am I just gonna fucking learn from it and move forward? So you guys have made a significant impact and continue to do so, but I'm grateful to be a small part in that and thank you for the opportunity to come hang out and talk. We really do appreciate it, brother. Yeah. Appreciate you guys. Of course, man. Thank you very much.

[Brandon Herrera]

Where do we find you? Get in here, brother. Oh, yeah, we just start making out like, well, that was weird. Hours and 10 minutes.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Marine, Navy. Where do we find you at Whistling Death on Instagram? I. I very professionally left. So I've started my journey earlier this year as a bladesmith.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, don't. Oh, we're going to talk about this now.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

I very. I very professionally left all of My handmade and production blades at home. I put my blades that I made us all a cute matching set and. And Nick as well. I left him at home. Yeah, I have. I have mine because I put it. So I have my gun. So now he's just bragging. Bragging. But I put it in my gun case. Traveling like a moping case. But I made all of us matching, matching blades. So I'm gonna. I'm end up shipping them out. But that's made by me. One hand. Quite literally. Hand and claw. Makes it even cooler. And then literally handmade. Yeah. Just.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, we're gonna. Oh.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

And where do they find this tyrant design dot com. Same with the. The merch and stuff. I hopped on. You know, I got the opportunity to hop in with you guys and bunker branding and whatnot. So very grateful for that. But yeah, no, it's been. It's been great. I'll get you. I'll be. Once I moved and have my forge set up, whenever you guys want to come out and learn how to afford some Damascus, let me know. Shoot some guns.

[Brandon Herrera]

And before we go to the after show, that's what I'm after. Show is going to be talking about, like blacksmithing.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Hell yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I want to know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're gonna nerd out.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Because I'm like, this is going to be one of those where I sit patiently and nodes. Well, that's true. Okay. I do have a little bit.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody's gonna be like, what the are they talking about? Cody, you beautiful son of a bitch. God, you look good today. Can I just.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

Bye, everyone. What's up? But the hair look great.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, your hair looks on point today. I just want to copy money really quick.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

They're nice to me sometimes. It's really cool. Bye, everyone. Thank you for coming to the unscribed podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, Tyler Vargas Andrews, Brandon A. Myself, Donut operator. Join us on the after show on Patreon. Or don't. I don't care. Or yourself.

[Brandon Herrera]

You.

[Tyler Vargas Andrews]

From the director of it comes a horrifying new story set in 1960s Derry, Maine. A story that explores the origin of Pennywise the clown. Get ready to go back where it all began. The new HBO original series welcome to Derry is now streaming on HBO Max on the it welcome to Derry official podcast. Join hosts Mark Bernardin and Princess Weeks as they unpack each episode after it airs on HBO Max. HBO's It's welcome to Derry podcast walks you back down the street of Derry 27 years before the losers club first formed and pulls you down into the sewers to dig into the history, the lore and the horror of what makes Derry, Maine's most sinister suburb. On each episode, you'll hear from show creators like Andy and Barbara Muschietti, plus cast and crew members as they talk about the making of the show. New podcast episodes drop every week after the episode airs on HBO Max. Stream new episodes of HBO's It welcome to Derry Sundays on HBO Max and listen to the IT welcome to Derry Official Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts.