Gentry Ward: Caliph on your girls. I'm just doot doot do do do do yeah. y'all don't I'm about to ex I'm
RJ Steiskal: You might blow up, you might not.
Gentry Ward: about to this fucking rando civilian is fucking
RJ Steiskal: Dude, the civil and the civilian's not yelling at us,
Gentry Ward: those are the worst civilians. Where they're like, hey, listen, soldier, I was a sergeant major. Yeah. Everyone you every civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: Mar 19 says, hey, that over there, I don't like it. Get rid of all of that.
RJ Steiskal: everybody get the fuck out.
Gentry Ward: Black block block a block. Got a fucking Article 15, dude. Just like that. Yes. Fucking OCs like, Hey, hey, and I'm like, hell yeah.
RJ Steiskal: man, this is already getting good, dude.
Gentry Ward: we got called and show up and they're like we're we were not ready. He's like, What the fuck you mean we're not ready? And they're just like, Well, we're doing SRP and we're doing this and I'm just like, Well, you fucking put us on the training schedule, didn't you? Like, where the fuck is your S three at? Like, let me talk to them 'cause I just traveled from fucking far away to come down here to fucking do what you asked me to do and I'm here to do it. So put your people here and they're just like, well we can give you this. I was like, give me some green suitors. Let's go out there and get this shit. Are these other civilians telling you? No, these are all green suitors. Okay. So okay but we I'm I'm the only other side. Yeah. It's it's the other side of it. It's the part that we're like, we're like, damn it.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, dude, it's the best. That's why I like, We gotta we gotta get this dude.
Gentry Ward: They told us We gotta go because the commander told us to do this and then now
RJ Steiskal: This
Gentry Ward: this fucking rando civilian is fucking
RJ Steiskal: Dude, the civil and the civilian's not yelling at us, he's telling us how fucked it is.
Gentry Ward: Dude, so normally I'm chill, right? 'Cause like there I gotta remember I'm a civilian, right? So I I show up and like two weeks ago two Yeah,
RJ Steiskal: Thank you for that. I'm s I'm sure there's so many green seeders who are thankful.
Gentry Ward: so I I and I've been there. I know what you're going through. I've
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: I've I've had the jump through my ass, you know, first sergeant comes in, says, Everybody, you know, here we go, you move out. I got it. But we had this conversation two weeks ago. I was just down here. We had this conversation two weeks ago. We sat we stood outside your freaking CP. You said, I need you here. I said, Okay, just do me a favor. Put X, Y, and Z together so that when I'm here, we're actually doing what we came to do. And was that green was that green tutor and hard higher echelon. Higher S okay, yeah. Hot the the highest warrant officer in the brigade. We we know why it happened now. We know why it happened. Yeah. So it didn't go, it stopped there.
RJ Steiskal: He was busy, dog.
Gentry Ward: It stopped there and it didn't go to stopped there. And you know what? Honestly, in military fashion, it was your fault. It was your fault. Absolutely. Because if I'm talking to a motherfucker like that, I'm a Gordon. Yeah. I'm like, nah, motherfucker. Yes, you did say that. What I forgot is today's world, we gotta put it in the email so that. there's a paper trail behind it 'cause that's how we operate now. That's true. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Can't I can't remember anything without an email conversation.
Gentry Ward: Hey, it didn't happen. And now we got and now we got teams. Yeah, teams. Hey,
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: have you ever done a signature block of kind of r you know, we used to do like very respectfully. And if you were in you if you wanted to be quick about it, you'd do V slash R, right? Yeah. Sometimes there there's been a few times where I
RJ Steiskal: Nah, I do a dash.
Gentry Ward: was like kinda respectfully or mostly respectfully.
RJ Steiskal: I do one minus sign and then my name. The end. It I don't even state it. It's just over. Like a poem dog.
Gentry Ward: So some of the shit I used to get away with I'ma put dot dot dot It's a fucking haiku. What the fuck? Dude, what is
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, man.
Gentry Ward: up with the signature blocks and the phrases and sayings and shit that like people put in there? Like everybody's fighting some kind of battle. Be kind.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I finally tuned in on that after my
Gentry Ward: Yeah, I don't know, man. And then back to back of what you were saying a minute ago too, though, those are the worst civilians. Where they're like, hey, listen, soldier, I was a sergeant major. Yeah. Everyone you every civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: Bro, it's like wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Right, exactly. So boy.
RJ Steiskal: I don't give a fuck what you were.
Gentry Ward: I I I remember being a young soldier and trying to figure shit out because you just don't know, you know, you're trying to figure out rank structure, you're trying to figure all that. And every taxi I jumped into, bro, it was a retired sergeant major. I was a retired sergeant major. I was a retired sergeant man. I was like, how many fucking sergeant majors were there? Because every taxi, at least here on this post, was a retired sergeant major. You seen how many generals?
RJ Steiskal: Look who's driving who around now.
Gentry Ward: You seen how many generals the army had in like the Vietnam era versus today? Well Yeah. What are you doing? What are they doing? I don't know.
RJ Steiskal: I think it was different qualifications and circumstances that led to promotions back then too. First off, the whole drill sermon and campaign hat was brand new right before Vietnam took off.
Gentry Ward: That's true. Back then you could get Battlefield promoted from SAF sergeant to Yeah, actually that I mean there was stories too. That's that's where it started with the Hey Corporal Yeah You're a captain
RJ Steiskal: Was it nine it was like nineteen sixty five, I think, is when we started using the we
Gentry Ward: That's when like fucking hand to hand fucking training was going on and shit.
RJ Steiskal: started using the prison model that
Gentry Ward: Dude.
RJ Steiskal: COs were using at their prisons to maintain these so not soldiers, prisoners, right? And it was just like, listen, as soon as you get off the bus, scare the living shit out of them. They they
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: will forever remember that.
Gentry Ward: Shocking all
RJ Steiskal: in s instead of everything that comes after that, that will be the most terrifying and memorable thing for them.
Gentry Ward: Bro, I got stories. So my my ex-wife's stepdad was a Marine DI Vietnam era. All right. So this is like and you know, he's like shorter than me, not a very tall guy, whatever. This dude's shit that he told me that he used to pull off at fucking like on cycles was fucking awesome, dude. Like this dude used to stand in a wall locker at the end of the hallway and every morning, like every night, the last thing those recruits, I guess, you know, I don't know what Marines call you know. Crayon eaters, I don't know. Fucking crayon. Yeah, fucking.
RJ Steiskal: So nothing's changed over the last sixty years of DI and DS activities.
Gentry Ward: So they they would last thing they would see was like his he was a senior drill, so they would you know everyone would they they like open up this wall locker and he'd turn around, stand in it, fucking take a step back. They close the fucking wall locker on him. So he'd stay in there and then they go lights out. So you know, first thing in the morning, drills are fucking waking up, motherfuckers are trash cans and shit, everybody's getting up, and then finally they'd go open the wall locker and he'd be there Obviously showered everything the night before, but and then get in there. But he'd stand out, he'd fucking wake up like a fucking vampire or something, and he'd get up, they'd open up the walllock, he'd come up, motherfucker start yelling and shit. I was like, you d what a mind fuck. You have like this dude he What part of the alphabet is that?
RJ Steiskal: Can't be good for his back. He's probably he probably had a couple coat hangers helping him. Like he was probably in like a vertical hammock.
Gentry Ward: Just fucking
RJ Steiskal: Like he would just h wear the coat hanger.
Gentry Ward: My boy opened up the fucking playbook to page coffin. Yeah. I mean obviously he is. I would
RJ Steiskal: How do you do that? How do you pull that off? Like, there's a stamp.
Gentry Ward: do s I would okay, so with lockers, like I mean I did a lot of shit. But I would try to get creative every single time. I would try to I would try to either up and or do something different, right? Like one time somebody somebody You can dump him. bro, w w what
RJ Steiskal: We couldn't dump if they were if they were so if they were secured with you couldn't
Gentry Ward: Yeah, no, no, no. No. Like
RJ Steiskal: fuck with nothing like that. But if they were less if they were less
Gentry Ward: What it
RJ Steiskal: than secured
Gentry Ward: yeah. But you also couldn't prove that I just went up to it and just shook the living fuck out of it, okay? Like what happened to it? I don't know. Maybe I just hate your roster number. But nah, the the one dude, it was like it was like day four. It's like day four. You're telling
RJ Steiskal: Y'd be surprised how strong I am.
Gentry Ward: me by the fourth day you can't figure out that you need to have your shit secured. Day four of me constantly screaming in your face. Okay, well, you know what? I really don't want this cereal anymore from breakfast. I'm gonna put it right there, put your PC over it. Do an inspection as soon as you come back from PT. Holy fuck, what is that? Dude, what I'm telling you, like, I don't remember what they used to call them, but when they would dump all the w you'd be down what was the CTA? Yeah, we'd be downstairs like shining boots or doing some bullshit and We were down in that training there in the bottom of the the shit was above
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: us, you know. So we're down there and then you just hear like goo coo goo goo coo goo goo it was just domino effect. You were just like the fuck's going on? Then some drill sergeant coming down is like I don't know what the fuck happened up there. Apparently fucking Freddie Krueger came and fucking had a fucking field day in the latrine. There's fucking blood and short and curlies everywhere. I don't know what the fuck's going on, but y'all need to go up there, police. So we go up there. I don't know how these drills got their hands on like fake blood, like Halloween shit. This fucking latrine looked like a fucking murder scene from Carrie, dude. There was just blood smeared on the walls.
RJ Steiskal: I don't think you understand how bored a drill sarns wife is.
Gentry Ward: Bro, you got the fucking someone left their wall locker unsecure and Kiwi. This is back when we were shining boots. There was Kiwi written on the fucking bay, like, don't leave your wall locker unsecure with Kiwi. And you know we gotta go clean and buff that shit afterwards and everything. So they fucking destroyed everything. And then that latrine was just holy fuck. I'm not saying I ever did it because it's not within regulation, but a bay fairy does what a bay fairy wants and a bay fairy will use your shaven cream to write you love letters as in walk your shit. Yeah. So all right. So you're all gonna get a kick out of this one because this is probably the stupidest shit a fucking private's ever done in fucking basic trading. Alright. So ever? Or or like in your experience? You're right. So this is my st this was my stupidest shit, right? This
RJ Steiskal: We know some dumb privates.
Gentry Ward: is the stupidest shit. So somehow, okay, I do remember how I got tagged as platoon guy. That was the greatest thing you guys used to do. It'd be like, You're fucking fired. And then they call someone else and be like, Davila, you're fucking platoon guy now. And you'd fucking break ranks wrong. You're fucking fired. You know how to break ranks. You and they just keep going down the line and find something. Your fucking face is ugly. You're fired. And then they keep going. Some these two dudes. got into a fight in the bay and I was the one that kinda broke him up. Okay. So I was just kinda I was first off, I gotta premise that I was twenty five when I was at basic training. So I was the old man. Everyone was like, Yeah, so yeah. bro. So
RJ Steiskal: yeah, you would have got caught on quick. Come here, PG, on day one.
Gentry Ward: I was probably 190, 195 when I got to fucking basics fucking drill starts issuing gear. And I think that this time we're up in the bay, everybody had got smoked, and we're in PTs. And I'm walking, we're just like doing this circle around Robin. They're just issuing shit. I don't remember what, how, or what, but I remember he coming around, he looked at me, he's like, You fucking pregnant? And I was like, fuck, dude. I looked out in my stomach. I was like, god damn it. He's all we'll take care of that shit. And I was like, fuck. Another time I come out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. That was before that was even before the that was way b way before PG. I came out
RJ Steiskal: Alright, we need a new PG. You're fired. Fuck you. Same day. That's how that would have went.
Gentry Ward: the shower and I'm walking out and the drill start comes out and I have the fucking towel around my waist. So I'm trying to get to my fucking bay. He comes out and he looks fucking hairy, you know? So he's like, That fucking sweater's not authorized. Take it off. And I was like, Jesus, but dude. They were so fucking brutal, dude. They didn't give a fuck. I was on the rappel tower one day and drill starts sitting up there. He's looking at me. He's like, Hey Donovan, how much do you weigh? I was like, I don't know. By this time I'm down about like, you know, I don't know. One second. Yeah. So he's just like, How about you put about 150 more fucking pounds of pressure on that goddamn razor? What when the fuck did you sh- I was like, dude, I fucking sh.
RJ Steiskal: What'd you say with a fucking pork chop?
Gentry Ward: I shave every fucking morning. He's up, maybe you should fucking shave twice. And I was like, God damn, bro. Like every chance they got to fucking demean you and fuck you up, it was just like free game. I swear to God, that's why I wanted to go fucking drill at one point. Like I never got a chance to do it.
RJ Steiskal: I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some kids and get right.
Gentry Ward: bro. I was If there was a tubby kid, he was my favorite of the D-Fact. I'd be like, hey, hey, don't give him a heart attack. Let's go. Half rations. Don't give him that. So as as a big guy, I was fucking You weren't gonna catch my ass getting fucking pizza or fucking cake or all that shit. Like, dude, how the fuck do people do it to themselves? Like there was other guys there that just had the like, you know, so like pear shaped bodies, you know? Yeah. I was just like dad bod fucking ex football player. Like I was twenty five, bro. I was not at the peak fucking Yeah. Catch me when I that was why I was tripping because I was 25 and there was guys coming out of high school and I'm like, how the fuck can you demeaning? Yep, yep.
RJ Steiskal: Peaked in high school, huh? Joined the army at twenty five, huh? How's that feel? We're the same age, Private. How's that feel?
Gentry Ward: This fucking dude all fucking ranger tabbed out. Fucking yeah. yeah, he fucked me. Like those were my senior drill. Senior drill.
RJ Steiskal: And it would have I would've I would have said it quietly. Just coming in for the shots, dude. Just for no reason.
Gentry Ward: yeah. Was younger than me. Mm-hmm. Motherfucking loaded. And I'm just like
RJ Steiskal: Yeah. Let's pop. Not mine. My senior drill was older than fucking dirt and stunk like Jack Daniels.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, respect. Are you talking about like while you were a drill or
RJ Steiskal: no, the one I had when I was a private. He told me this other shit. Well,
Gentry Ward: Ha ha ha.
RJ Steiskal: we were about same height. And he was he was fucking nuts, dude. And I was like, yeah, dude. Fuck yeah, I wanna be like him when I grow up. And now look at me, I'm all fucking like just fucking losing it. Twenty four
Gentry Ward: Fucking eyes all sideways and shit
RJ Steiskal: seven. I'm unmedicated twenty eight days. We're fucking hearing. Here, hearing voices, Randy Orton.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, we're here. So break these guys up. Mm-hmm. Fucking drill comes out and he sees them fucking throwing blows. I'm like fucking pulling apart. Hey, what the fuck, man? I'm just like, calm the fuck down. It's like you can push this motherfucker over there, push this motherfucker, they're all sliding on socks and shit. And he comes out, what the fuck? Right? And I turn around, where I fucking parade rest, he's You, you and you, come with me. I was like, fuck, this is it. This is where I die. You know, he's gonna take us out to the fucking woods and fucking stab us with a
RJ Steiskal: Yeah. That is it.
Gentry Ward: fucking K-bar, you know what I mean? So he fucking takes us out to the remember them fucking like needle brush fucking bushes that they had out there that had like the fucking thorns and shit? I can't remember what they were, but they're everywhere.
RJ Steiskal: Like Briars?
Gentry Ward: Bruh, ex that's exactly what it was. Why the fuck couldn't I fucking come up with that? Yeah, Georgia, Georgia got them wait a minute vines. That's what I always called them. There's there's like briars, right? But then there's wait a minute vines, which are like that thick, you know?
RJ Steiskal: Made out of s sharp velcro.
Gentry Ward: And the thorns are like this long. Yeah. You run in So he He took us out to those and said, Y'all wanna fucking fight? Fucking fight. And he threw
RJ Steiskal: one of them to the pee hole.
Gentry Ward: him in that motherfucker, dude. They're just trying to get themselves on top. They're fighting for their life. He just stood me on the side and said to watch this. I don't know why I'm there. He's just like, you stand right here. So they're fucking coming out. They're all cut up. They're bleeding from fucking like every little fucking scratch. So we get in there and it was mail call. He says, Hey, when we get in there, you just sit there, shut the fuck up, don't say nothing, and you two don't fucking say shit. All right, so they go and they sit down. Everybody's looking at us like, What the fuck? So they see me go in unscathed. They see them come in fucking bloody. And they're all like, What the fuck just happened? Drill didn't even walk in the bay. They just see that shit. We sit down, we do what he said. Don't say shit. So he sit there, got that fucking mail calls coming. I just let that shit hit me in the face. I didn't even fucking bother. Like, I was just like stone cold, like, I
RJ Steiskal: Cool.
Gentry Ward: don't want to be here. He comes out and he's like, Domino's the fucking platoon guide now. And I was like, what the fuck? Right? So about three days into it, someone left their fucking wall locker insecure. I should have been a fucking good battle buddy and fucking secured it for But instead, I tossed their shit. All right. I'm going to see why fucking stupid I was. Bro, if I walked in and I No, I tossed their shit
RJ Steiskal: And then he blamed the he was like, I don't know who the fu Drill Storm must have did that shit.
Gentry Ward: thinking like I walked in. Bitch, you fucking can't secure your and it was like we're walking out and me and I guess a assistant platoon guide or whatever, we're checking everyone's life. It was the last one on the way out. So like my head That means everybody else walked past that shit. And I'm like, nah, fuck that, dude. So we look at each other, me and this guy, we fucking start tossing that shit. I'm taking it all in the fucking bay. So the drill start comes down. Once again, I hear the coo, coo, coon raver like, fuck. So he comes down, he's like, why the fuck is there shit in my fucking kill zone? And he's yelling, he's fucking veins
RJ Steiskal: Fuck.
Gentry Ward: are coming out, all these fucking little blood vessels are busting. I finally got up and I stood up and I was like, drill sergeant. And I did it. He's like, You're not the fucking drill sergeant. He fucking you're fucking fired. I was like, I don't know. Bro, he Nah
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I oughta lit you the fuck up.
Gentry Ward: looking back on it, is that not the stupidest fucking shit? Bro, I mean,
RJ Steiskal: yeah. I mean
Gentry Ward: what was I thinking? So there that was I had a saying. Go ahead.
RJ Steiskal: There I mean, there is the private that believed they could KO the drill sarn and when he tried it did not go his way.
Gentry Ward: that was I guess far more stupid. yeah, that was that was pretty fun diabolical. Diabolical. He came up to me later.
RJ Steiskal: That's that's probably the dumbest one. Like that but yours thinking you can do what I do?
Gentry Ward: Thank you, bro. That that shit like looking back on it, especially after
RJ Steiskal: Like that's a hundred percent how I would have like phrased it for you, like if you were my private
Gentry Ward: This dude You can ask every single trainee that I ever had. They all heard the same thing. I do not get into bay politics and motherfuckers slip in the shower all the time. That was my quote. So I don't give a fuck what happens to the like if if somebody's trying to do my job for me because their fucking other battle buddy sucks so bad, I'm gonna walk in, I'm like strained, all right. I'm embarrassed to fucking say this out loud. Like years later, you know, especially talking to two freaking retired drills and shit. You're like, it's this
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: is but we got two different we got two different perspectives. RJ would've lit you up. I'd have been like with good
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: reason. There was one training. I would have fucking lit someone up if I had ever got
RJ Steiskal: There there's a lane.
Gentry Ward: to that part. Yeah, absolutely. Stay in your fucking lane. That's right, dude. Well, I had this one training. Yeah. Sure.
RJ Steiskal: There's a lane. And that's all it's a left and right limit, dude. Like I was a I was a machine gunner though, that's what I preached. You know what I mean? Different mentality entirely.
Gentry Ward: I was I was over in B code that we had this one training, we couldn't fire him. We could not fire him. We tried so many times. We're like, all right, we're getting bored of him. Like, we're gonna fire somebody. He was the only person that could keep that platoon in line. And every single day
RJ Steiskal: The only one
Gentry Ward: he would have red knuckles and somebody would have a black eye. We were just like, right, fuck it, dude. We're like, can you stop fucking fighting him, dude? Like, you're gonna get us in a fucking investigate. Can you stop? He's just like, and when they fucking start listening, I'll stop punches. I'm like, I can't hear that. Go away. You just start laughing. What what about
RJ Steiskal: I'd ask who has their phones and then no one would a no one would. And if they did they
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: didn't say, but I'd finish with no picks, no proofs, so how they ever gonna tell me about it?
Gentry Ward: Yeah, see, that wasn't even a thing back then. Psychological. Psych psycholaka. Yeah. Psychological drones. You fucking
RJ Steiskal: I was I was future with it. Yeah, I was
Gentry Ward: went Bill Cosby future on their ass. Like nobody. I go in the bay all the time, be like, all
RJ Steiskal: They didn't put no they didn't come with brain condoms.
Gentry Ward: right. I'ma tell you right now, I already saw it. I already saw it. I already know it. Yeah. So who the fuck did it? And then I'd just stand there. And then they just start ratting each other out for everything. And I'd just be fucking them up.
RJ Steiskal: weird shit too.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, weird shit, dude. You'd find out some weird shit. You like at some point you'd be like, all right, stop talking. We're done. I'm leaving. What is going on? What was the for you as a drill, what was the most like demeaning thing you could do to your like platoon as a whole? Like was it fucking just skull dragging them fucking smoke session? Was it fucking making them march with no cadence? To me, when I marched with no cadence, that to me was the absolute lowest I ever felt at baseball. I would I mean I would do shit like that. 'Cause they just make you feel like, Okay, you're not even You disgust me, I don't want to fucking sing fuckers. Like they're just yeah, I did something like that, but
RJ Steiskal: Me and Drew did Cadence, but we would make wait. Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: you remember me and me and Burke would always see who could do it louder. But that was like first and second.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, yeah.
RJ Steiskal: And then like we'd shut it down real quick, like the first mistake.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: First mistake, no more cadence, you're done. Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah, that we demeaning shit as a platoon though, like for the whole platoon, I would Yeah,
RJ Steiskal: I would let know how disappointed I am.
Gentry Ward: it was really like that was a big one. But if it was like if you wanted to actually be like diabolical, you know Yeah. yeah. You can hit like that all the time,
RJ Steiskal: like father level. Like, y'all really let me down today.
Gentry Ward: but yeah. But getting all the platoons out there and then just fucking up the rest of the company because of a specific platoon, but letting them watch. How competitive was the Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: yeah, random one? Dude, a random one? It's easy. It's so easy to absolutely wreck a whole platoon. But like my platoon is different. Yeah.
Gentry Ward: yeah. Did you ever get into shit with other platoons? Like l sh legit middle of the night, fucking your platoon, their platoon, drills there too, calling you out of the barracks at night? No. Like other drills? Yeah. There there was like behind the scenes shit, right? And a drill sergeant's The drill sergeant world we were in, right? It's different in every battalion, but it was very dog eat dog. Like you would be like if somebody fucked up something, like on CQ shift or something like that, at least that very minimum, all the drills would know. Like if somebody didn't hook up the water buffer and they were supposed to, right? It would a picture would be taken and then a meme would be made and be like, Drill Sergeant King sucks again. You know, you like just ran
RJ Steiskal: But it wouldn't be in it wouldn't be in the full company chat.
Gentry Ward: it's random. It's hypothetical. It wasn't drill sergeant king. Dude. You're my I was personal by you. I was on CQ night. See, I was stupid when I was fucking dude, it was hard to adjust. I was twenty five years old. By that time, I've already become a man. You know, like I don't need you. You've already experienced I'm try I'm trying to like adjust to like I'm getting broke down now, you know, and then I knew the kids around me, you're you don't know shit. I get it. But like I was I've done shit, you know? I'm a dad. I'm I'm all this shit, you know? Yeah. I'm at I'm on CQ at night and the drill sergeant's like, Let's go And I'm like, All right, so he like fucking says, Get in the truck, right? I fucking get in the truck, right? So I get up there, he opens the door and I'll sit in the driver's seat. Huh? Did did that truck have a tailgate? It it was a LMTV, but it didn't have shit in the back. It was the one we were for taking the water buffalo
RJ Steiskal: He hopped up front.
Gentry Ward: to. It was gonna take the water buffalo out the next day or whatever. That drill that drill had you up front? No, listen to this. Listen to how this went down. He said, get in the truck. I'll be right there.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: I get in the truck. He comes up and opens the door. I was in the driver's seat. The fuck you do? I didn't know dude. He said you said get in the drunk. He goes get the fuck in the back, dude. I was like you he's like he's like
RJ Steiskal: That's alright. That's alright. When I would drive the deuce I'd have kids just think they could cup come in the front like yeah, I r I'm riding up front. No the fuck you're not
Gentry Ward: Yeah, he's like, What what would compel you to think? What would compel you to think I say get in the truck? You mean go fucking drive this truck? I was like, You say get in the truck, girls. I don't know. You got the driver's seat? He opens the door. Imagine that door opening and him seeing me up there, like, what's up? Bro,
RJ Steiskal: Bro. Insane dude.
Gentry Ward: I would have I would have had a tow rope within ten minutes tied to the front of that vehicle and you would have been pulling, but I would have been in back and just having you walk me around That that dude had to fucking think I was a student. They came up with a nickname for me and they didn't tell me until the end. I was CSB and that's what the drills called me. CSB CSB. And then the last day with a big fucking dip in his mouth. And then they're like, hey. And I turn around, he's like, I was gonna walk away. And he's like he's like, you know what CSB stood for? And I was like, No, he's like, crazy short bitch. And I was like, All right.
RJ Steiskal: Bucket.
Gentry Ward: Fuck it. Hell yeah. But like I told you guys I went to Benning as aviation. Had to go to fucking so like everybody
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: about face, I went to fucking get on a bus and they didn't know what to do me, so he's just like, Well, we'll catch you fucking somewhere else, bitch. Dude, it was it was it was it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Some of my private s you know, I was like, maybe I'll see you later. Fuck you. And then like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: they graduated and went and became infantrymen and shit. Most
Gentry Ward: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
RJ Steiskal: of I was like, trainees, I don't ever want to fucking see your face, hear your voice, mention your name, be talked to about you. Stay the fuck
Gentry Ward: Right.
RJ Steiskal: out of trouble and stay the fuck out of my face.
Gentry Ward: Did you ever have like guys going OCS and shit from your platoon? Like that was weird 'cause like we had four guys in basic with me that were going OCS that right afterwards. So then my drill he pulled us he pulled me in that w when I was
RJ Steiskal: We do we have a west pointer?
Gentry Ward: No no no. No no no. That that's just something that happened in his generation, not in not in ours. Yeah, so this was like
RJ Steiskal: Like we had it in reverse. yeah, yeah.
Gentry Ward: Hey, is OCS Officer Candidate school,
RJ Steiskal: It's still OCS.
Gentry Ward: right? So he pulled me in. I was that it was during the short window, I was a platoon guide. He says, Hey, normally I let the platoon guys pick squad leaders. He says, But I'm gonna pick your squad leaders for you. And I was like, Okay, I don't give a fuck. I don't know anything. You know, and he's just like, reason why is there the four guys going OCS, and when I get off this rotation, I'm going OCS. He goes, I might fucking need these guys. And I was like, Smart. This dude was like, they're gonna be my peers
RJ Steiskal: Play the game.
Gentry Ward: where we're headed so he was like I'm gonna fucking take care of these guys and then maybe when I get to where when we get to OCS they'll take care of me and I was like long
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: gone it's smart yeah yeah yeah that's crazy
RJ Steiskal: That's a life that's a lifer. He ain't getting out after two contracts. He said
Gentry Ward: No.
RJ Steiskal: that O two E pay looks way too good.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, dude. Well, he was already fucking, like I say, Ranger tabbed and I mean I'm sure he was gonna branch fucking cause
RJ Steiskal: He's basically done with everything you could do in the in the normal world.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, he had already done all the stands and shit. You know, this was like two thousand and three, so way before like G Watt and shit. Typically if you have a former infantry non-commissioned officer become an officer dude, he's pretty shit hot, typically. but if it's like a different MOS and then it comes to infantry, it's just weird. Yeah. Like I I had a I had a lieutenant
RJ Steiskal: There's an adjustment phase.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, I had a Lieutenant Colonel that was a a Cab Scout or some shit. And he's like, The strikers are your horses. Like, no, sir. They have a fucking giant gun on and we should probably use Like, I don't know. It would it he'd be like, hey, drive,
RJ Steiskal: What horse got eight fucking legs?
Gentry Ward: drive to this start of this lane in your striker. Get out and run at the bad guys that are shooting at you. Don't use your fifty cal. Don't use your Mark Nike that says, Yeah. The Martin 19, yeah, dude.
RJ Steiskal: Get out the back. Present your back immediately and then come fight.
Gentry Ward: Mar 19 says, hey, that over there, I don't like it. Get rid of all of that. 50 cal, it can fucking the round can come this far away from you and take off of your arm. It would take your fucking arm off. Yeah. That close, right? Let's run at them. Let's do that. Like fuck me.
RJ Steiskal: Everybody g everybody get the fuck out.
Gentry Ward: That's like when we were in Iraq, we would be on a convoy and we would see fucking these little dirt trails off the beaten path. And you just see those guys going light fucking mechanized. We're fucking heavy mechanized here going down the road. And we're we've gone, we're going down a road that was cleared the day before. Those guys are out there fucking light home views, just fucking hopping on the sand. I was like, what are they doing? they're not going the way we're going. They're gonna go their own route. And I was just like, What fucking sense does that make, dude? Like, this is clear. They're going to fucking no man's land out there. Like, they don't give a fuck. They fucking Plus you can't take like we don't we're not gonna take the same route no every day anyway. So like Yeah, they were
RJ Steiskal: I did.
Gentry Ward: just doing their own shit. We were on MSR Tampa the whole fucking time, dude. Like MSRs were used. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: so so so can I ask y'all a question then? Do we ever take the same route, sp especially in a combat zone?
Gentry Ward: You're not supposed to, but we do. All the fucking time. We we were on every every bad story of like
RJ Steiskal: All the fucking time. Like to the point where you are only going to have contact on this one route because it's the only one you've ever used.
Gentry Ward: Yeah. When we call them MSRs. I mean Yeah, you
RJ Steiskal: no, mine were foot tri like we were walking.
Gentry Ward: were guys are p h patrol, but just you're talking about guys who fucking move by vehicle from point A to point B. Yeah. But
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, yeah. The MSRs is different, but like you still you know, you gotta keep an eye out.
Gentry Ward: So I y'all don't I'm about to ex I'm
RJ Steiskal: You might blow up, you might not.
Gentry Ward: about to expose y'all to something that you're gonna find mind blowing. I I know my world and your world down there were two different things, but check this out. While deployed, they decided to do convoy ranges. 'Cause we are not going outside the wire all the time, but you gotta be proficient at moving and all that stuff. So they're gonna
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: say, Hey, we're gonna go do this freaking live range. Mm-hmm. So going outside the wire, dude. Did you guys ever do shit like that? This is the stupidest shit I ever heard when I was down there. I was like, Why are we doing this? Like, who needs to do ranges downrange? Like this is stupid. Like, cadre, everything. All right.
RJ Steiskal: That's the shit I heard too. Or felt I felt that way. Well, it was fucking
Gentry Ward: I heard about people doing like EIB and Kuwait and shit. It's like well they even moved PLDC out there. The land nav course is like, mm-hmm it's one of the
RJ Steiskal: Stop.
Gentry Ward: one of the 30 points on one of those fifteen hills and it's hotter than buck. Go to the one that's got waves over there. See that sand dune? Yeah. There's no water over there. Might be a point. I don't know. Go find out. But we get to this freaking
RJ Steiskal: Brush is crazy. That but like
Gentry Ward: place that we're gonna do our freaking live fire and there's
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: little fucking Haji kids there to pick up the brass.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gentry Ward: How the fuck did they know we were going out there to do that?
RJ Steiskal: They've been doing it for decades. I asked
Gentry Ward: D
RJ Steiskal: the same question when I was there. I was like, what about the brass? I wasn't on the lanes or nothing, but I would hear shots all the time. I'm like, what the fuck, dude? Like first week on the fob and like people are just shooting all the fucking time.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: I'm like, I know we're supposed to be shooting, but like, what what are we doing here?
Gentry Ward: That sounds a little excessive. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Then it sounds a little controlled. Yeah. Nah. Right.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, right. And it's like and there's no siren happening, like everything's cool, nobody's chipped, nobody's running, whatever. I'm like, what about the brass though? Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: they're like, no, man, the I the Iraqis, dude, they just collect it, drop it off at the smelter for some cash. And
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: then we and then we just make more with it. I'm like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: So you guys pa you're paying them to pick it up? That's what's up.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: We don't have to do that job. They got people doing it for us. So like, dude, when you're an infantryman over, you just gotta focus on shoot,
Gentry Ward: Yeah. We need some of them some bitches over here, dude. Pennies on the dollar too. You ever go into a machine gun range?
RJ Steiskal: move, communicate.
Gentry Ward: That's pretty dope. You ever going to machine gun range? Stateside? Good luck. Good luck being a fucking half ounce short. You better go out there.
RJ Steiskal: Well I I know I I was outside that fob, but that same fob was doing lanes. They were doing bullshit. Glass houses.
Gentry Ward: White light, 3 a.m. Nope. Didn't pick it up up. Ammo. Sorry. He he brought his portable scale. We're off by two pounds. And that was another thing, like when you shot good, that was what I hated about basic training is like I again I was twenty five by that time I had you know immediately became detailed. Bro, I shot, got fucking expert or whatever, they're like, go fucking load fucking nags the rest of the day. I was like, bitch, these guys are fucking no goes and going over and over and over through the range. I'm just sitting there like you wanna shoot some more. I know, I wanna shoot. Like I I can shoot. Like, let me go show You got fucking guys with B C G's and their ID card duct tape to their fucking lens 'cause they can't keep their eye closed to fucking do that. You see a fucking guy walk out to the range and he's got fucking ID card taped over his BCG just one side, you're like, fuck's wrong with that retard and he comes out and you're like, He can't fucking just shut one eye and freak it. So you're gonna let him go out there like that? Like this dude's he doomed. Like, give him an O T V and have him go draw fire. He's
RJ Steiskal: Dude, it's easy. Just do one of these and then like nobody don't even worry about it. Just shoot, baby. You could just switch
Gentry Ward: Or I would
RJ Steiskal: eyes, dude. Don't even just put the put the other eye down and then you shoot like this. Teaching kids to shoot's the craziest thing.
Gentry Ward: I'm good. Dude. Mm-hmm. And I I guess you guys didn't have to deal with it too much. I don't know. There was no females at Benny when I was there, but like it might have might have been there. Alright, good. So not in our battalion, no. So like
RJ Steiskal: yeah. We d not in ours. yeah, there were two integrated battalions but not us.
Gentry Ward: Once I became an NCO and I was a cadre for ranges and shit, I felt like I felt like training the females was so much easier because they would fucking like listen. Cause you you know, you're the same way with everybody yelling and fucking do this, do that, side picture, breathe, everything. But they would fucking pay attention because they didn't have bad habits. You get those motherfucking dudes from the hood out there trying to fucking shoot sideways and shit, you're like, dude, this ain't fucking Yeah, you're like Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Sideways with the chicken wing. Yeah, that's gonna fucking work.
Gentry Ward: Fucking guys coming there is like, yeah, bro, get on your fucking prone. This is not gonna happen. Man, I had this dude a shout out to Flowers. He got kicked out eventually, but when he was a private, now I was like a PFC or specialist, right? This is my regular like regular army. Yeah, right. He got there like th three, four months after me. He's a Pv2 at this time. Did you guys fast track? Or y'all just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you you both
RJ Steiskal: Like I was s I was a drill start before I was an E six. And then I was a six
Gentry Ward: F so if F five I got I got
RJ Steiskal: N six.
Gentry Ward: I was a six and four and then I picked or I got I got
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, he was extra fast.
Gentry Ward: I got I got selected for seven at six years, five months and more high speed than my senior drill. I was tripping 'cause he was like five and five, six and six, seven and seven, and then going to OCS. I was like, yeah, this dude's fucking high speed. Seven and seven's that was like the unicorn. Yeah. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: That was I mean, that was the track I was on. Yeah. I was even planning the the OCS and everything. Like that was a hundred
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: percent the whole plan.
Gentry Ward: But yeah, five
RJ Steiskal: I was doing it.
Gentry Ward: CFC and flowers. Fucking dude. Okay, so we're we're doing we're up at Fort Wayne Ride, Alaska, and we're we're running like a Team Sticks. And he's running with the saw. I'm wearing a jacket. We did we did dry, right? So
RJ Steiskal: Listen, nah.
Gentry Ward: you're you're supposed to you're supposed to say saw for the amount of time that the rate of fire that your team leader gives you, right? So you know if you're if you're at a cyclic rate of fire, you should be like Sa you know, just keep going, not stopping, right? And then so he's just he's supposed to be doing sustained rate of fire. So he's supposed to be so, you know, when he when he's shooting, right? Then they give him blank rounds. During dry fire, he goes, He's he, my boy, he's hood. Okay. He comes from the panhandle of Florida on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. If you don't know what that means, he ain't from Florida. But he fucking goes out there. He's just block a block a block a block.
RJ Steiskal: I think I think a lot of people know what that means.
Gentry Ward: This OC's, shut the fuck up, flowers. And then he gets blank rounds. He runs out of blank rounds. And as soon as he does, he goes, Shit, I'm out, I'm out. They're like, all right. Tend like you shoot. Like, keep going. Dry fire. He's like, all right. Black block block a block. Got a fucking Article 15, dude. Just like that. Yes. but Alaska, they did not fucking play. Well, Article 15's like one one shred of disrespect or just like not being what you're supposed to be in the military, you know, having that military bearing. we had we had a guy who our my first tour to Afghanistan, he came from Alaska and he was like the only one that knew how to use like the free gear. my God. So we were pissed me off at drum. Yeah, we were like, dude, I what we we're pulling shit out of Duffels. You know, we're at Fort Hood, dude. There's like it doesn't get colder than it is here. So like we we don't know how to use this shit. And he's just like we're fucking freezing. He says, Y'all ain't layering this shit up. They're certified up there and like if you're if you have a Joe that gets frostbite. Yeah. If they're they're gonna investigate and if it's his if it's his fault because like he had his gloves but he wasn't wearing them and then it got stuck out of his sleeping bag when they told you to go sleep in three feet of snow, that kid's getting article fifteen. If you didn't do a layout and he didn't have his gloves, you're fired, article fifteen, demoted, gone. Like you're going to another company as well. Like bad. I saw I saw a whole chain of command from squad leader or Team leaders, squad leaders, PL platoon sergeant, first sergeant, CO, wiped in one field problem. Cleansing. They had like seven dudes that got frostbite because they were like, we're gonna stay here. It was like negative 30. He was like, we're gonna stay here and pull recon on this road all night long. They're like, we didn't bring anything but our snivel gear. They're like, we'll go get seven sleeping bags. They grabbed a squad's worth of sleeping bags for like 28 men, and they were just rotating them. So dudes were getting in there. Like two people at a time and their arms are sticking out and dudes are just black in the morning. my god. Fire. Yeah, that's Alaska didn't play. We I mean at Hood you'd get an article fifteen if you got a sunburn. Like, yeah. Okay. That's how it's like the worst. I'll take it I'd take that one to court martial like that as an act
RJ Steiskal: No that's that I think that was that was their plan. I
Gentry Ward: of God. What do you mean?
RJ Steiskal: I said I like I wanted Fort Polk. Send me back. And then they were like, no, Hood. That's why, dude, they couldn't figure out how to get me out. They were like, he's gonna burn down there. He's gonna burn down there. He's gonna burn,
Gentry Ward: Deck statement. He's gonna burn like fucking Hades.
RJ Steiskal: and then we'll give him Article 15s, and then we'll have a paper trail of actual shit that he's done because everything else we just didn't know.
Gentry Ward: Bro, y'all see Jimmy how pale he is. No, yeah. That dude had to have worked nights his whole career because that dude would fucking die out there. Like when we were guiding hunts and stuff, he started looking brown like me. And I was like, damn, you guys freaking you're starting to get some color, you know? He's like, bro, this heat that he like if you ain't if you're not a my daughter's down there right now in she's going to tech school in Air Force. And She's the only one in her, I don't know, class or whatever that is from Texas. And everyone's We don't know what the Chair Force does either. Yeah. So she does we don't either. I I can't figure it out. We just know they get paid
RJ Steiskal: Something like this.
Gentry Ward: well. Yeah, I just know that like her quality of life is way better than anything worse conditions we were ever put in. So anyway, she she says that
RJ Steiskal: Glad to hear it.
Gentry Ward: everybody's given her Shit, because she's from Texas, you know. She's like, it's still fucking hot for me. Like, no, this sucks still. Yeah. She's like, Yeah, I'm from here, but it's still fucking hot. You know, and she sent me a picture, she's got a nasty burn on the back of the nape of her neck from hot brass, and I was like, Dope. Hell yeah. Yeah, I was like, wait till you go to the fifty cal raid. She's I don't think we do that. Listen. I was like, yeah. During during
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I don't think we know what those are.
Gentry Ward: my tenure. up at Fort Wayne right, we were striker unit at the time. They're not up there anymore, thank God, because those vehicles do not belong in that type of weather. I can see that. But we're we're doing a live fire. Neither does it neither does a fucking Subaru. What the fuck? Anyway. We're doing a live fire and like we're we're in the Yukon, right? It is beautiful. And we're just fucking mountains up. Like They're like, hey, you're gonna be supported by fire. I'm like, all right, cool. So they pull I
RJ Steiskal: You ever shot tracers under the Aurora Borealis?
Gentry Ward: I'll pull up. Yeah. What?
RJ Steiskal: You ever shot tracers under the Aurora Borealis?
Gentry Ward: That's gotta be fucking cool. Dude, sick. I got a of my. I've never seen it. I I got a picture, I'll show you. I tried to fucking I put in four picture of my striker. Alaska and JBLM and I never fucking left Hood. Like that, you know, they fucking left me there to die and burn. Yeah. I joined Fucking
RJ Steiskal: They stuck me at Lewis forever.
Gentry Ward: mad. Dude, I joined the army to get the fuck out of Texas and got stationed at fucking Fort Hood. Who the f
RJ Steiskal: Told them send me as far as we can. But not outside of America, because this is the greatest country on earth, and I'm only going outside of it if it means fighting for it. I ain't a conus nothing, dude. I'm in a combat zone or I'm conus.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, keeping those motherfuckers from coming over here. Yeah. Yeah. True. Man, I tell you what. I'm
RJ Steiskal: Except when I went on training.
Gentry Ward: sitting there. I'm up on top of this mountain. They're like fighting the like dismounts are fighting down in the valley below us. And there's another mountain, you know, right there. And we're just lighting it up. All the support by fire. So we have Martin Nineteens and fifty cal shooting at it. As well as I think we had some engineer guys out there and mortars, so we're we're dropping everything on it, right? It's the snow conditions. No, it was middle of summer for this one. Okay. now I mean I've been out there in the middle of winter and it sucks, but 50
RJ Steiskal: Probably looks even crazier in the snow.
Gentry Ward: cal rounds, dude. My RWS just shit the bed. So I had to freehand it. I'm like, all right, fuck it. So I get up there and I'm fucking going after it. And then finally I'm like, all right, I need some I need some rounds. Jump back down there, grab some more rounds, throw, throw up a couple cases. doing my reload actions and brass is just flying everywhere. I start shooting again, brass is flying everywhere, and big ass 50 cal rounds are just going down my kit, dude. I'm just lay just fucking trying my best to shoot. The guns going like this. The OCs
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: are like, hey, hey, John, like fuck you.
RJ Steiskal: I can't hear nothing. What?
Gentry Ward: What? They're calling over the radio. Cease fire, ceasefire.
RJ Steiskal: Ha ha ha!
Gentry Ward: What I think this gutter had a fucking seizure. Fucking I can't hear shit because I got the damn headphones hot wired to the striker and I'm listening to Katie Perry like Caliph on your girls. I'm just doot doot do do do do yeah. Fucking OCs are standing on a building to the side and they're like, Hey, hey, and I'm like, hell yeah. Dude, it was a fucking great time. I had a fucking negli negli negligent discharge on a right before a convoy in Kuwait. here's a striker, sorry. my god. Yeah. So that I mean I'll pop it up but like show either real quick. Yeah, it didn't Yeah, that picture doesn't that video doesn't do it justice. That picture's amazing. I mean live seeing it. yeah. Nothing like it. But yeah, I freaking we're fixing a convoy and I like swung side and I just put my freaking hands on the fucking triggers, dude, and do do do do do right. And I fucking like fuck and my fucking LTs down under me. And he's like, You good, Domina? I fucking stop the ground. We're ready to roll, sir. Let's fucking roll. And he's like, fuck yeah. I'm like, holy fucking shit, dude. I throw my fucking bot lava around my face. I was all fuck, dude. We get
RJ Steiskal: Boy said it's a confidence grip.
Gentry Ward: bro, I'm fucking going down there. I'm just like white knuckling this shit. Like what the fuck just happened? Yeah. You're looking around, you're like, Test fire, test fire, test fire. Right on the side.
RJ Steiskal: You might blow up, you might not.
Gentry Ward: about to this fucking rando civilian is fucking
RJ Steiskal: Dude, the civil and the civilian's not yelling at us,
Gentry Ward: those are the worst civilians. Where they're like, hey, listen, soldier, I was a sergeant major. Yeah. Everyone you every civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: Mar 19 says, hey, that over there, I don't like it. Get rid of all of that.
RJ Steiskal: everybody get the fuck out.
Gentry Ward: Black block block a block. Got a fucking Article 15, dude. Just like that. Yes. Fucking OCs like, Hey, hey, and I'm like, hell yeah.
RJ Steiskal: man, this is already getting good, dude.
Gentry Ward: we got called and show up and they're like we're we were not ready. He's like, What the fuck you mean we're not ready? And they're just like, Well, we're doing SRP and we're doing this and I'm just like, Well, you fucking put us on the training schedule, didn't you? Like, where the fuck is your S three at? Like, let me talk to them 'cause I just traveled from fucking far away to come down here to fucking do what you asked me to do and I'm here to do it. So put your people here and they're just like, well we can give you this. I was like, give me some green suitors. Let's go out there and get this shit. Are these other civilians telling you? No, these are all green suitors. Okay. So okay but we I'm I'm the only other side. Yeah. It's it's the other side of it. It's the part that we're like, we're like, damn it.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, dude, it's the best. That's why I like, We gotta we gotta get this dude.
Gentry Ward: They told us We gotta go because the commander told us to do this and then now
RJ Steiskal: This
Gentry Ward: this fucking rando civilian is fucking
RJ Steiskal: Dude, the civil and the civilian's not yelling at us, he's telling us how fucked it is.
Gentry Ward: Dude, so normally I'm chill, right? 'Cause like there I gotta remember I'm a civilian, right? So I I show up and like two weeks ago two Yeah,
RJ Steiskal: Thank you for that. I'm s I'm sure there's so many green seeders who are thankful.
Gentry Ward: so I I and I've been there. I know what you're going through. I've
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: I've I've had the jump through my ass, you know, first sergeant comes in, says, Everybody, you know, here we go, you move out. I got it. But we had this conversation two weeks ago. I was just down here. We had this conversation two weeks ago. We sat we stood outside your freaking CP. You said, I need you here. I said, Okay, just do me a favor. Put X, Y, and Z together so that when I'm here, we're actually doing what we came to do. And was that green was that green tutor and hard higher echelon. Higher S okay, yeah. Hot the the highest warrant officer in the brigade. We we know why it happened now. We know why it happened. Yeah. So it didn't go, it stopped there.
RJ Steiskal: He was busy, dog.
Gentry Ward: It stopped there and it didn't go to stopped there. And you know what? Honestly, in military fashion, it was your fault. It was your fault. Absolutely. Because if I'm talking to a motherfucker like that, I'm a Gordon. Yeah. I'm like, nah, motherfucker. Yes, you did say that. What I forgot is today's world, we gotta put it in the email so that. there's a paper trail behind it 'cause that's how we operate now. That's true. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Can't I can't remember anything without an email conversation.
Gentry Ward: Hey, it didn't happen. And now we got and now we got teams. Yeah, teams. Hey,
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: have you ever done a signature block of kind of r you know, we used to do like very respectfully. And if you were in you if you wanted to be quick about it, you'd do V slash R, right? Yeah. Sometimes there there's been a few times where I
RJ Steiskal: Nah, I do a dash.
Gentry Ward: was like kinda respectfully or mostly respectfully.
RJ Steiskal: I do one minus sign and then my name. The end. It I don't even state it. It's just over. Like a poem dog.
Gentry Ward: So some of the shit I used to get away with I'ma put dot dot dot It's a fucking haiku. What the fuck? Dude, what is
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, man.
Gentry Ward: up with the signature blocks and the phrases and sayings and shit that like people put in there? Like everybody's fighting some kind of battle. Be kind.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I finally tuned in on that after my
Gentry Ward: Yeah, I don't know, man. And then back to back of what you were saying a minute ago too, though, those are the worst civilians. Where they're like, hey, listen, soldier, I was a sergeant major. Yeah. Everyone you every civilian Shut up.
RJ Steiskal: As soon as you say that I stop listening.
Gentry Ward: Bro, it's like wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Right, exactly. So boy.
RJ Steiskal: I don't give a fuck what you were.
Gentry Ward: I I I remember being a young soldier and trying to figure shit out because you just don't know, you know, you're trying to figure out rank structure, you're trying to figure all that. And every taxi I jumped into, bro, it was a retired sergeant major. I was a retired sergeant major. I was a retired sergeant man. I was like, how many fucking sergeant majors were there? Because every taxi, at least here on this post, was a retired sergeant major. You seen how many generals?
RJ Steiskal: Look who's driving who around now.
Gentry Ward: You seen how many generals the army had in like the Vietnam era versus today? Well Yeah. What are you doing? What are they doing? I don't know.
RJ Steiskal: I think it was different qualifications and circumstances that led to promotions back then too. First off, the whole drill sermon and campaign hat was brand new right before Vietnam took off.
Gentry Ward: That's true. Back then you could get Battlefield promoted from SAF sergeant to Yeah, actually that I mean there was stories too. That's that's where it started with the Hey Corporal Yeah You're a captain
RJ Steiskal: Was it nine it was like nineteen sixty five, I think, is when we started using the we
Gentry Ward: That's when like fucking hand to hand fucking training was going on and shit.
RJ Steiskal: started using the prison model that
Gentry Ward: Dude.
RJ Steiskal: COs were using at their prisons to maintain these so not soldiers, prisoners, right? And it was just like, listen, as soon as you get off the bus, scare the living shit out of them. They they
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: will forever remember that.
Gentry Ward: Shocking all
RJ Steiskal: in s instead of everything that comes after that, that will be the most terrifying and memorable thing for them.
Gentry Ward: Bro, I got stories. So my my ex-wife's stepdad was a Marine DI Vietnam era. All right. So this is like and you know, he's like shorter than me, not a very tall guy, whatever. This dude's shit that he told me that he used to pull off at fucking like on cycles was fucking awesome, dude. Like this dude used to stand in a wall locker at the end of the hallway and every morning, like every night, the last thing those recruits, I guess, you know, I don't know what Marines call you know. Crayon eaters, I don't know. Fucking crayon. Yeah, fucking.
RJ Steiskal: So nothing's changed over the last sixty years of DI and DS activities.
Gentry Ward: So they they would last thing they would see was like his he was a senior drill, so they would you know everyone would they they like open up this wall locker and he'd turn around, stand in it, fucking take a step back. They close the fucking wall locker on him. So he'd stay in there and then they go lights out. So you know, first thing in the morning, drills are fucking waking up, motherfuckers are trash cans and shit, everybody's getting up, and then finally they'd go open the wall locker and he'd be there Obviously showered everything the night before, but and then get in there. But he'd stand out, he'd fucking wake up like a fucking vampire or something, and he'd get up, they'd open up the walllock, he'd come up, motherfucker start yelling and shit. I was like, you d what a mind fuck. You have like this dude he What part of the alphabet is that?
RJ Steiskal: Can't be good for his back. He's probably he probably had a couple coat hangers helping him. Like he was probably in like a vertical hammock.
Gentry Ward: Just fucking
RJ Steiskal: Like he would just h wear the coat hanger.
Gentry Ward: My boy opened up the fucking playbook to page coffin. Yeah. I mean obviously he is. I would
RJ Steiskal: How do you do that? How do you pull that off? Like, there's a stamp.
Gentry Ward: do s I would okay, so with lockers, like I mean I did a lot of shit. But I would try to get creative every single time. I would try to I would try to either up and or do something different, right? Like one time somebody somebody You can dump him. bro, w w what
RJ Steiskal: We couldn't dump if they were if they were so if they were secured with you couldn't
Gentry Ward: Yeah, no, no, no. No. Like
RJ Steiskal: fuck with nothing like that. But if they were less if they were less
Gentry Ward: What it
RJ Steiskal: than secured
Gentry Ward: yeah. But you also couldn't prove that I just went up to it and just shook the living fuck out of it, okay? Like what happened to it? I don't know. Maybe I just hate your roster number. But nah, the the one dude, it was like it was like day four. It's like day four. You're telling
RJ Steiskal: Y'd be surprised how strong I am.
Gentry Ward: me by the fourth day you can't figure out that you need to have your shit secured. Day four of me constantly screaming in your face. Okay, well, you know what? I really don't want this cereal anymore from breakfast. I'm gonna put it right there, put your PC over it. Do an inspection as soon as you come back from PT. Holy fuck, what is that? Dude, what I'm telling you, like, I don't remember what they used to call them, but when they would dump all the w you'd be down what was the CTA? Yeah, we'd be downstairs like shining boots or doing some bullshit and We were down in that training there in the bottom of the the shit was above
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: us, you know. So we're down there and then you just hear like goo coo goo goo coo goo goo it was just domino effect. You were just like the fuck's going on? Then some drill sergeant coming down is like I don't know what the fuck happened up there. Apparently fucking Freddie Krueger came and fucking had a fucking field day in the latrine. There's fucking blood and short and curlies everywhere. I don't know what the fuck's going on, but y'all need to go up there, police. So we go up there. I don't know how these drills got their hands on like fake blood, like Halloween shit. This fucking latrine looked like a fucking murder scene from Carrie, dude. There was just blood smeared on the walls.
RJ Steiskal: I don't think you understand how bored a drill sarns wife is.
Gentry Ward: Bro, you got the fucking someone left their wall locker unsecure and Kiwi. This is back when we were shining boots. There was Kiwi written on the fucking bay, like, don't leave your wall locker unsecure with Kiwi. And you know we gotta go clean and buff that shit afterwards and everything. So they fucking destroyed everything. And then that latrine was just holy fuck. I'm not saying I ever did it because it's not within regulation, but a bay fairy does what a bay fairy wants and a bay fairy will use your shaven cream to write you love letters as in walk your shit. Yeah. So all right. So you're all gonna get a kick out of this one because this is probably the stupidest shit a fucking private's ever done in fucking basic trading. Alright. So ever? Or or like in your experience? You're right. So this is my st this was my stupidest shit, right? This
RJ Steiskal: We know some dumb privates.
Gentry Ward: is the stupidest shit. So somehow, okay, I do remember how I got tagged as platoon guy. That was the greatest thing you guys used to do. It'd be like, You're fucking fired. And then they call someone else and be like, Davila, you're fucking platoon guy now. And you'd fucking break ranks wrong. You're fucking fired. You know how to break ranks. You and they just keep going down the line and find something. Your fucking face is ugly. You're fired. And then they keep going. Some these two dudes. got into a fight in the bay and I was the one that kinda broke him up. Okay. So I was just kinda I was first off, I gotta premise that I was twenty five when I was at basic training. So I was the old man. Everyone was like, Yeah, so yeah. bro. So
RJ Steiskal: yeah, you would have got caught on quick. Come here, PG, on day one.
Gentry Ward: I was probably 190, 195 when I got to fucking basics fucking drill starts issuing gear. And I think that this time we're up in the bay, everybody had got smoked, and we're in PTs. And I'm walking, we're just like doing this circle around Robin. They're just issuing shit. I don't remember what, how, or what, but I remember he coming around, he looked at me, he's like, You fucking pregnant? And I was like, fuck, dude. I looked out in my stomach. I was like, god damn it. He's all we'll take care of that shit. And I was like, fuck. Another time I come out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. That was before that was even before the that was way b way before PG. I came out
RJ Steiskal: Alright, we need a new PG. You're fired. Fuck you. Same day. That's how that would have went.
Gentry Ward: the shower and I'm walking out and the drill start comes out and I have the fucking towel around my waist. So I'm trying to get to my fucking bay. He comes out and he looks fucking hairy, you know? So he's like, That fucking sweater's not authorized. Take it off. And I was like, Jesus, but dude. They were so fucking brutal, dude. They didn't give a fuck. I was on the rappel tower one day and drill starts sitting up there. He's looking at me. He's like, Hey Donovan, how much do you weigh? I was like, I don't know. By this time I'm down about like, you know, I don't know. One second. Yeah. So he's just like, How about you put about 150 more fucking pounds of pressure on that goddamn razor? What when the fuck did you sh- I was like, dude, I fucking sh.
RJ Steiskal: What'd you say with a fucking pork chop?
Gentry Ward: I shave every fucking morning. He's up, maybe you should fucking shave twice. And I was like, God damn, bro. Like every chance they got to fucking demean you and fuck you up, it was just like free game. I swear to God, that's why I wanted to go fucking drill at one point. Like I never got a chance to do it.
RJ Steiskal: I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some kids and get right.
Gentry Ward: bro. I was If there was a tubby kid, he was my favorite of the D-Fact. I'd be like, hey, hey, don't give him a heart attack. Let's go. Half rations. Don't give him that. So as as a big guy, I was fucking You weren't gonna catch my ass getting fucking pizza or fucking cake or all that shit. Like, dude, how the fuck do people do it to themselves? Like there was other guys there that just had the like, you know, so like pear shaped bodies, you know? Yeah. I was just like dad bod fucking ex football player. Like I was twenty five, bro. I was not at the peak fucking Yeah. Catch me when I that was why I was tripping because I was 25 and there was guys coming out of high school and I'm like, how the fuck can you demeaning? Yep, yep.
RJ Steiskal: Peaked in high school, huh? Joined the army at twenty five, huh? How's that feel? We're the same age, Private. How's that feel?
Gentry Ward: This fucking dude all fucking ranger tabbed out. Fucking yeah. yeah, he fucked me. Like those were my senior drill. Senior drill.
RJ Steiskal: And it would have I would've I would have said it quietly. Just coming in for the shots, dude. Just for no reason.
Gentry Ward: yeah. Was younger than me. Mm-hmm. Motherfucking loaded. And I'm just like
RJ Steiskal: Yeah. Let's pop. Not mine. My senior drill was older than fucking dirt and stunk like Jack Daniels.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, respect. Are you talking about like while you were a drill or
RJ Steiskal: no, the one I had when I was a private. He told me this other shit. Well,
Gentry Ward: Ha ha ha.
RJ Steiskal: we were about same height. And he was he was fucking nuts, dude. And I was like, yeah, dude. Fuck yeah, I wanna be like him when I grow up. And now look at me, I'm all fucking like just fucking losing it. Twenty four
Gentry Ward: Fucking eyes all sideways and shit
RJ Steiskal: seven. I'm unmedicated twenty eight days. We're fucking hearing. Here, hearing voices, Randy Orton.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, we're here. So break these guys up. Mm-hmm. Fucking drill comes out and he sees them fucking throwing blows. I'm like fucking pulling apart. Hey, what the fuck, man? I'm just like, calm the fuck down. It's like you can push this motherfucker over there, push this motherfucker, they're all sliding on socks and shit. And he comes out, what the fuck? Right? And I turn around, where I fucking parade rest, he's You, you and you, come with me. I was like, fuck, this is it. This is where I die. You know, he's gonna take us out to the fucking woods and fucking stab us with a
RJ Steiskal: Yeah. That is it.
Gentry Ward: fucking K-bar, you know what I mean? So he fucking takes us out to the remember them fucking like needle brush fucking bushes that they had out there that had like the fucking thorns and shit? I can't remember what they were, but they're everywhere.
RJ Steiskal: Like Briars?
Gentry Ward: Bruh, ex that's exactly what it was. Why the fuck couldn't I fucking come up with that? Yeah, Georgia, Georgia got them wait a minute vines. That's what I always called them. There's there's like briars, right? But then there's wait a minute vines, which are like that thick, you know?
RJ Steiskal: Made out of s sharp velcro.
Gentry Ward: And the thorns are like this long. Yeah. You run in So he He took us out to those and said, Y'all wanna fucking fight? Fucking fight. And he threw
RJ Steiskal: one of them to the pee hole.
Gentry Ward: him in that motherfucker, dude. They're just trying to get themselves on top. They're fighting for their life. He just stood me on the side and said to watch this. I don't know why I'm there. He's just like, you stand right here. So they're fucking coming out. They're all cut up. They're bleeding from fucking like every little fucking scratch. So we get in there and it was mail call. He says, Hey, when we get in there, you just sit there, shut the fuck up, don't say nothing, and you two don't fucking say shit. All right, so they go and they sit down. Everybody's looking at us like, What the fuck? So they see me go in unscathed. They see them come in fucking bloody. And they're all like, What the fuck just happened? Drill didn't even walk in the bay. They just see that shit. We sit down, we do what he said. Don't say shit. So he sit there, got that fucking mail calls coming. I just let that shit hit me in the face. I didn't even fucking bother. Like, I was just like stone cold, like, I
RJ Steiskal: Cool.
Gentry Ward: don't want to be here. He comes out and he's like, Domino's the fucking platoon guide now. And I was like, what the fuck? Right? So about three days into it, someone left their fucking wall locker insecure. I should have been a fucking good battle buddy and fucking secured it for But instead, I tossed their shit. All right. I'm going to see why fucking stupid I was. Bro, if I walked in and I No, I tossed their shit
RJ Steiskal: And then he blamed the he was like, I don't know who the fu Drill Storm must have did that shit.
Gentry Ward: thinking like I walked in. Bitch, you fucking can't secure your and it was like we're walking out and me and I guess a assistant platoon guide or whatever, we're checking everyone's life. It was the last one on the way out. So like my head That means everybody else walked past that shit. And I'm like, nah, fuck that, dude. So we look at each other, me and this guy, we fucking start tossing that shit. I'm taking it all in the fucking bay. So the drill start comes down. Once again, I hear the coo, coo, coon raver like, fuck. So he comes down, he's like, why the fuck is there shit in my fucking kill zone? And he's yelling, he's fucking veins
RJ Steiskal: Fuck.
Gentry Ward: are coming out, all these fucking little blood vessels are busting. I finally got up and I stood up and I was like, drill sergeant. And I did it. He's like, You're not the fucking drill sergeant. He fucking you're fucking fired. I was like, I don't know. Bro, he Nah
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I oughta lit you the fuck up.
Gentry Ward: looking back on it, is that not the stupidest fucking shit? Bro, I mean,
RJ Steiskal: yeah. I mean
Gentry Ward: what was I thinking? So there that was I had a saying. Go ahead.
RJ Steiskal: There I mean, there is the private that believed they could KO the drill sarn and when he tried it did not go his way.
Gentry Ward: that was I guess far more stupid. yeah, that was that was pretty fun diabolical. Diabolical. He came up to me later.
RJ Steiskal: That's that's probably the dumbest one. Like that but yours thinking you can do what I do?
Gentry Ward: Thank you, bro. That that shit like looking back on it, especially after
RJ Steiskal: Like that's a hundred percent how I would have like phrased it for you, like if you were my private
Gentry Ward: This dude You can ask every single trainee that I ever had. They all heard the same thing. I do not get into bay politics and motherfuckers slip in the shower all the time. That was my quote. So I don't give a fuck what happens to the like if if somebody's trying to do my job for me because their fucking other battle buddy sucks so bad, I'm gonna walk in, I'm like strained, all right. I'm embarrassed to fucking say this out loud. Like years later, you know, especially talking to two freaking retired drills and shit. You're like, it's this
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: is but we got two different we got two different perspectives. RJ would've lit you up. I'd have been like with good
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: reason. There was one training. I would have fucking lit someone up if I had ever got
RJ Steiskal: There there's a lane.
Gentry Ward: to that part. Yeah, absolutely. Stay in your fucking lane. That's right, dude. Well, I had this one training. Yeah. Sure.
RJ Steiskal: There's a lane. And that's all it's a left and right limit, dude. Like I was a I was a machine gunner though, that's what I preached. You know what I mean? Different mentality entirely.
Gentry Ward: I was I was over in B code that we had this one training, we couldn't fire him. We could not fire him. We tried so many times. We're like, all right, we're getting bored of him. Like, we're gonna fire somebody. He was the only person that could keep that platoon in line. And every single day
RJ Steiskal: The only one
Gentry Ward: he would have red knuckles and somebody would have a black eye. We were just like, right, fuck it, dude. We're like, can you stop fucking fighting him, dude? Like, you're gonna get us in a fucking investigate. Can you stop? He's just like, and when they fucking start listening, I'll stop punches. I'm like, I can't hear that. Go away. You just start laughing. What what about
RJ Steiskal: I'd ask who has their phones and then no one would a no one would. And if they did they
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: didn't say, but I'd finish with no picks, no proofs, so how they ever gonna tell me about it?
Gentry Ward: Yeah, see, that wasn't even a thing back then. Psychological. Psych psycholaka. Yeah. Psychological drones. You fucking
RJ Steiskal: I was I was future with it. Yeah, I was
Gentry Ward: went Bill Cosby future on their ass. Like nobody. I go in the bay all the time, be like, all
RJ Steiskal: They didn't put no they didn't come with brain condoms.
Gentry Ward: right. I'ma tell you right now, I already saw it. I already saw it. I already know it. Yeah. So who the fuck did it? And then I'd just stand there. And then they just start ratting each other out for everything. And I'd just be fucking them up.
RJ Steiskal: weird shit too.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, weird shit, dude. You'd find out some weird shit. You like at some point you'd be like, all right, stop talking. We're done. I'm leaving. What is going on? What was the for you as a drill, what was the most like demeaning thing you could do to your like platoon as a whole? Like was it fucking just skull dragging them fucking smoke session? Was it fucking making them march with no cadence? To me, when I marched with no cadence, that to me was the absolute lowest I ever felt at baseball. I would I mean I would do shit like that. 'Cause they just make you feel like, Okay, you're not even You disgust me, I don't want to fucking sing fuckers. Like they're just yeah, I did something like that, but
RJ Steiskal: Me and Drew did Cadence, but we would make wait. Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: you remember me and me and Burke would always see who could do it louder. But that was like first and second.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, yeah.
RJ Steiskal: And then like we'd shut it down real quick, like the first mistake.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: First mistake, no more cadence, you're done. Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah, that we demeaning shit as a platoon though, like for the whole platoon, I would Yeah,
RJ Steiskal: I would let know how disappointed I am.
Gentry Ward: it was really like that was a big one. But if it was like if you wanted to actually be like diabolical, you know Yeah. yeah. You can hit like that all the time,
RJ Steiskal: like father level. Like, y'all really let me down today.
Gentry Ward: but yeah. But getting all the platoons out there and then just fucking up the rest of the company because of a specific platoon, but letting them watch. How competitive was the Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: yeah, random one? Dude, a random one? It's easy. It's so easy to absolutely wreck a whole platoon. But like my platoon is different. Yeah.
Gentry Ward: yeah. Did you ever get into shit with other platoons? Like l sh legit middle of the night, fucking your platoon, their platoon, drills there too, calling you out of the barracks at night? No. Like other drills? Yeah. There there was like behind the scenes shit, right? And a drill sergeant's The drill sergeant world we were in, right? It's different in every battalion, but it was very dog eat dog. Like you would be like if somebody fucked up something, like on CQ shift or something like that, at least that very minimum, all the drills would know. Like if somebody didn't hook up the water buffer and they were supposed to, right? It would a picture would be taken and then a meme would be made and be like, Drill Sergeant King sucks again. You know, you like just ran
RJ Steiskal: But it wouldn't be in it wouldn't be in the full company chat.
Gentry Ward: it's random. It's hypothetical. It wasn't drill sergeant king. Dude. You're my I was personal by you. I was on CQ night. See, I was stupid when I was fucking dude, it was hard to adjust. I was twenty five years old. By that time, I've already become a man. You know, like I don't need you. You've already experienced I'm try I'm trying to like adjust to like I'm getting broke down now, you know, and then I knew the kids around me, you're you don't know shit. I get it. But like I was I've done shit, you know? I'm a dad. I'm I'm all this shit, you know? Yeah. I'm at I'm on CQ at night and the drill sergeant's like, Let's go And I'm like, All right, so he like fucking says, Get in the truck, right? I fucking get in the truck, right? So I get up there, he opens the door and I'll sit in the driver's seat. Huh? Did did that truck have a tailgate? It it was a LMTV, but it didn't have shit in the back. It was the one we were for taking the water buffalo
RJ Steiskal: He hopped up front.
Gentry Ward: to. It was gonna take the water buffalo out the next day or whatever. That drill that drill had you up front? No, listen to this. Listen to how this went down. He said, get in the truck. I'll be right there.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: I get in the truck. He comes up and opens the door. I was in the driver's seat. The fuck you do? I didn't know dude. He said you said get in the drunk. He goes get the fuck in the back, dude. I was like you he's like he's like
RJ Steiskal: That's alright. That's alright. When I would drive the deuce I'd have kids just think they could cup come in the front like yeah, I r I'm riding up front. No the fuck you're not
Gentry Ward: Yeah, he's like, What what would compel you to think? What would compel you to think I say get in the truck? You mean go fucking drive this truck? I was like, You say get in the truck, girls. I don't know. You got the driver's seat? He opens the door. Imagine that door opening and him seeing me up there, like, what's up? Bro,
RJ Steiskal: Bro. Insane dude.
Gentry Ward: I would have I would have had a tow rope within ten minutes tied to the front of that vehicle and you would have been pulling, but I would have been in back and just having you walk me around That that dude had to fucking think I was a student. They came up with a nickname for me and they didn't tell me until the end. I was CSB and that's what the drills called me. CSB CSB. And then the last day with a big fucking dip in his mouth. And then they're like, hey. And I turn around, he's like, I was gonna walk away. And he's like he's like, you know what CSB stood for? And I was like, No, he's like, crazy short bitch. And I was like, All right.
RJ Steiskal: Bucket.
Gentry Ward: Fuck it. Hell yeah. But like I told you guys I went to Benning as aviation. Had to go to fucking so like everybody
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: about face, I went to fucking get on a bus and they didn't know what to do me, so he's just like, Well, we'll catch you fucking somewhere else, bitch. Dude, it was it was it was it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Some of my private s you know, I was like, maybe I'll see you later. Fuck you. And then like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: they graduated and went and became infantrymen and shit. Most
Gentry Ward: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
RJ Steiskal: of I was like, trainees, I don't ever want to fucking see your face, hear your voice, mention your name, be talked to about you. Stay the fuck
Gentry Ward: Right.
RJ Steiskal: out of trouble and stay the fuck out of my face.
Gentry Ward: Did you ever have like guys going OCS and shit from your platoon? Like that was weird 'cause like we had four guys in basic with me that were going OCS that right afterwards. So then my drill he pulled us he pulled me in that w when I was
RJ Steiskal: We do we have a west pointer?
Gentry Ward: No no no. No no no. That that's just something that happened in his generation, not in not in ours. Yeah, so this was like
RJ Steiskal: Like we had it in reverse. yeah, yeah.
Gentry Ward: Hey, is OCS Officer Candidate school,
RJ Steiskal: It's still OCS.
Gentry Ward: right? So he pulled me in. I was that it was during the short window, I was a platoon guide. He says, Hey, normally I let the platoon guys pick squad leaders. He says, But I'm gonna pick your squad leaders for you. And I was like, Okay, I don't give a fuck. I don't know anything. You know, and he's just like, reason why is there the four guys going OCS, and when I get off this rotation, I'm going OCS. He goes, I might fucking need these guys. And I was like, Smart. This dude was like, they're gonna be my peers
RJ Steiskal: Play the game.
Gentry Ward: where we're headed so he was like I'm gonna fucking take care of these guys and then maybe when I get to where when we get to OCS they'll take care of me and I was like long
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: gone it's smart yeah yeah yeah that's crazy
RJ Steiskal: That's a life that's a lifer. He ain't getting out after two contracts. He said
Gentry Ward: No.
RJ Steiskal: that O two E pay looks way too good.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, dude. Well, he was already fucking, like I say, Ranger tabbed and I mean I'm sure he was gonna branch fucking cause
RJ Steiskal: He's basically done with everything you could do in the in the normal world.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, he had already done all the stands and shit. You know, this was like two thousand and three, so way before like G Watt and shit. Typically if you have a former infantry non-commissioned officer become an officer dude, he's pretty shit hot, typically. but if it's like a different MOS and then it comes to infantry, it's just weird. Yeah. Like I I had a I had a lieutenant
RJ Steiskal: There's an adjustment phase.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, I had a Lieutenant Colonel that was a a Cab Scout or some shit. And he's like, The strikers are your horses. Like, no, sir. They have a fucking giant gun on and we should probably use Like, I don't know. It would it he'd be like, hey, drive,
RJ Steiskal: What horse got eight fucking legs?
Gentry Ward: drive to this start of this lane in your striker. Get out and run at the bad guys that are shooting at you. Don't use your fifty cal. Don't use your Mark Nike that says, Yeah. The Martin 19, yeah, dude.
RJ Steiskal: Get out the back. Present your back immediately and then come fight.
Gentry Ward: Mar 19 says, hey, that over there, I don't like it. Get rid of all of that. 50 cal, it can fucking the round can come this far away from you and take off of your arm. It would take your fucking arm off. Yeah. That close, right? Let's run at them. Let's do that. Like fuck me.
RJ Steiskal: Everybody g everybody get the fuck out.
Gentry Ward: That's like when we were in Iraq, we would be on a convoy and we would see fucking these little dirt trails off the beaten path. And you just see those guys going light fucking mechanized. We're fucking heavy mechanized here going down the road. And we're we've gone, we're going down a road that was cleared the day before. Those guys are out there fucking light home views, just fucking hopping on the sand. I was like, what are they doing? they're not going the way we're going. They're gonna go their own route. And I was just like, What fucking sense does that make, dude? Like, this is clear. They're going to fucking no man's land out there. Like, they don't give a fuck. They fucking Plus you can't take like we don't we're not gonna take the same route no every day anyway. So like Yeah, they were
RJ Steiskal: I did.
Gentry Ward: just doing their own shit. We were on MSR Tampa the whole fucking time, dude. Like MSRs were used. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: so so so can I ask y'all a question then? Do we ever take the same route, sp especially in a combat zone?
Gentry Ward: You're not supposed to, but we do. All the fucking time. We we were on every every bad story of like
RJ Steiskal: All the fucking time. Like to the point where you are only going to have contact on this one route because it's the only one you've ever used.
Gentry Ward: Yeah. When we call them MSRs. I mean Yeah, you
RJ Steiskal: no, mine were foot tri like we were walking.
Gentry Ward: were guys are p h patrol, but just you're talking about guys who fucking move by vehicle from point A to point B. Yeah. But
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, yeah. The MSRs is different, but like you still you know, you gotta keep an eye out.
Gentry Ward: So I y'all don't I'm about to ex I'm
RJ Steiskal: You might blow up, you might not.
Gentry Ward: about to expose y'all to something that you're gonna find mind blowing. I I know my world and your world down there were two different things, but check this out. While deployed, they decided to do convoy ranges. 'Cause we are not going outside the wire all the time, but you gotta be proficient at moving and all that stuff. So they're gonna
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: say, Hey, we're gonna go do this freaking live range. Mm-hmm. So going outside the wire, dude. Did you guys ever do shit like that? This is the stupidest shit I ever heard when I was down there. I was like, Why are we doing this? Like, who needs to do ranges downrange? Like this is stupid. Like, cadre, everything. All right.
RJ Steiskal: That's the shit I heard too. Or felt I felt that way. Well, it was fucking
Gentry Ward: I heard about people doing like EIB and Kuwait and shit. It's like well they even moved PLDC out there. The land nav course is like, mm-hmm it's one of the
RJ Steiskal: Stop.
Gentry Ward: one of the 30 points on one of those fifteen hills and it's hotter than buck. Go to the one that's got waves over there. See that sand dune? Yeah. There's no water over there. Might be a point. I don't know. Go find out. But we get to this freaking
RJ Steiskal: Brush is crazy. That but like
Gentry Ward: place that we're gonna do our freaking live fire and there's
RJ Steiskal: Yeah.
Gentry Ward: little fucking Haji kids there to pick up the brass.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Gentry Ward: How the fuck did they know we were going out there to do that?
RJ Steiskal: They've been doing it for decades. I asked
Gentry Ward: D
RJ Steiskal: the same question when I was there. I was like, what about the brass? I wasn't on the lanes or nothing, but I would hear shots all the time. I'm like, what the fuck, dude? Like first week on the fob and like people are just shooting all the fucking time.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: I'm like, I know we're supposed to be shooting, but like, what what are we doing here?
Gentry Ward: That sounds a little excessive. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Then it sounds a little controlled. Yeah. Nah. Right.
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, right. And it's like and there's no siren happening, like everything's cool, nobody's chipped, nobody's running, whatever. I'm like, what about the brass though? Like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: they're like, no, man, the I the Iraqis, dude, they just collect it, drop it off at the smelter for some cash. And
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: then we and then we just make more with it. I'm like
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: So you guys pa you're paying them to pick it up? That's what's up.
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: We don't have to do that job. They got people doing it for us. So like, dude, when you're an infantryman over, you just gotta focus on shoot,
Gentry Ward: Yeah. We need some of them some bitches over here, dude. Pennies on the dollar too. You ever go into a machine gun range?
RJ Steiskal: move, communicate.
Gentry Ward: That's pretty dope. You ever going to machine gun range? Stateside? Good luck. Good luck being a fucking half ounce short. You better go out there.
RJ Steiskal: Well I I know I I was outside that fob, but that same fob was doing lanes. They were doing bullshit. Glass houses.
Gentry Ward: White light, 3 a.m. Nope. Didn't pick it up up. Ammo. Sorry. He he brought his portable scale. We're off by two pounds. And that was another thing, like when you shot good, that was what I hated about basic training is like I again I was twenty five by that time I had you know immediately became detailed. Bro, I shot, got fucking expert or whatever, they're like, go fucking load fucking nags the rest of the day. I was like, bitch, these guys are fucking no goes and going over and over and over through the range. I'm just sitting there like you wanna shoot some more. I know, I wanna shoot. Like I I can shoot. Like, let me go show You got fucking guys with B C G's and their ID card duct tape to their fucking lens 'cause they can't keep their eye closed to fucking do that. You see a fucking guy walk out to the range and he's got fucking ID card taped over his BCG just one side, you're like, fuck's wrong with that retard and he comes out and you're like, He can't fucking just shut one eye and freak it. So you're gonna let him go out there like that? Like this dude's he doomed. Like, give him an O T V and have him go draw fire. He's
RJ Steiskal: Dude, it's easy. Just do one of these and then like nobody don't even worry about it. Just shoot, baby. You could just switch
Gentry Ward: Or I would
RJ Steiskal: eyes, dude. Don't even just put the put the other eye down and then you shoot like this. Teaching kids to shoot's the craziest thing.
Gentry Ward: I'm good. Dude. Mm-hmm. And I I guess you guys didn't have to deal with it too much. I don't know. There was no females at Benny when I was there, but like it might have might have been there. Alright, good. So not in our battalion, no. So like
RJ Steiskal: yeah. We d not in ours. yeah, there were two integrated battalions but not us.
Gentry Ward: Once I became an NCO and I was a cadre for ranges and shit, I felt like I felt like training the females was so much easier because they would fucking like listen. Cause you you know, you're the same way with everybody yelling and fucking do this, do that, side picture, breathe, everything. But they would fucking pay attention because they didn't have bad habits. You get those motherfucking dudes from the hood out there trying to fucking shoot sideways and shit, you're like, dude, this ain't fucking Yeah, you're like Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: Sideways with the chicken wing. Yeah, that's gonna fucking work.
Gentry Ward: Fucking guys coming there is like, yeah, bro, get on your fucking prone. This is not gonna happen. Man, I had this dude a shout out to Flowers. He got kicked out eventually, but when he was a private, now I was like a PFC or specialist, right? This is my regular like regular army. Yeah, right. He got there like th three, four months after me. He's a Pv2 at this time. Did you guys fast track? Or y'all just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you you both
RJ Steiskal: Like I was s I was a drill start before I was an E six. And then I was a six
Gentry Ward: F so if F five I got I got
RJ Steiskal: N six.
Gentry Ward: I was a six and four and then I picked or I got I got
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, he was extra fast.
Gentry Ward: I got I got selected for seven at six years, five months and more high speed than my senior drill. I was tripping 'cause he was like five and five, six and six, seven and seven, and then going to OCS. I was like, yeah, this dude's fucking high speed. Seven and seven's that was like the unicorn. Yeah. Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: That was I mean, that was the track I was on. Yeah. I was even planning the the OCS and everything. Like that was a hundred
Gentry Ward: Yeah.
RJ Steiskal: percent the whole plan.
Gentry Ward: But yeah, five
RJ Steiskal: I was doing it.
Gentry Ward: CFC and flowers. Fucking dude. Okay, so we're we're doing we're up at Fort Wayne Ride, Alaska, and we're we're running like a Team Sticks. And he's running with the saw. I'm wearing a jacket. We did we did dry, right? So
RJ Steiskal: Listen, nah.
Gentry Ward: you're you're supposed to you're supposed to say saw for the amount of time that the rate of fire that your team leader gives you, right? So you know if you're if you're at a cyclic rate of fire, you should be like Sa you know, just keep going, not stopping, right? And then so he's just he's supposed to be doing sustained rate of fire. So he's supposed to be so, you know, when he when he's shooting, right? Then they give him blank rounds. During dry fire, he goes, He's he, my boy, he's hood. Okay. He comes from the panhandle of Florida on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. If you don't know what that means, he ain't from Florida. But he fucking goes out there. He's just block a block a block a block.
RJ Steiskal: I think I think a lot of people know what that means.
Gentry Ward: This OC's, shut the fuck up, flowers. And then he gets blank rounds. He runs out of blank rounds. And as soon as he does, he goes, Shit, I'm out, I'm out. They're like, all right. Tend like you shoot. Like, keep going. Dry fire. He's like, all right. Black block block a block. Got a fucking Article 15, dude. Just like that. Yes. but Alaska, they did not fucking play. Well, Article 15's like one one shred of disrespect or just like not being what you're supposed to be in the military, you know, having that military bearing. we had we had a guy who our my first tour to Afghanistan, he came from Alaska and he was like the only one that knew how to use like the free gear. my God. So we were pissed me off at drum. Yeah, we were like, dude, I what we we're pulling shit out of Duffels. You know, we're at Fort Hood, dude. There's like it doesn't get colder than it is here. So like we we don't know how to use this shit. And he's just like we're fucking freezing. He says, Y'all ain't layering this shit up. They're certified up there and like if you're if you have a Joe that gets frostbite. Yeah. If they're they're gonna investigate and if it's his if it's his fault because like he had his gloves but he wasn't wearing them and then it got stuck out of his sleeping bag when they told you to go sleep in three feet of snow, that kid's getting article fifteen. If you didn't do a layout and he didn't have his gloves, you're fired, article fifteen, demoted, gone. Like you're going to another company as well. Like bad. I saw I saw a whole chain of command from squad leader or Team leaders, squad leaders, PL platoon sergeant, first sergeant, CO, wiped in one field problem. Cleansing. They had like seven dudes that got frostbite because they were like, we're gonna stay here. It was like negative 30. He was like, we're gonna stay here and pull recon on this road all night long. They're like, we didn't bring anything but our snivel gear. They're like, we'll go get seven sleeping bags. They grabbed a squad's worth of sleeping bags for like 28 men, and they were just rotating them. So dudes were getting in there. Like two people at a time and their arms are sticking out and dudes are just black in the morning. my god. Fire. Yeah, that's Alaska didn't play. We I mean at Hood you'd get an article fifteen if you got a sunburn. Like, yeah. Okay. That's how it's like the worst. I'll take it I'd take that one to court martial like that as an act
RJ Steiskal: No that's that I think that was that was their plan. I
Gentry Ward: of God. What do you mean?
RJ Steiskal: I said I like I wanted Fort Polk. Send me back. And then they were like, no, Hood. That's why, dude, they couldn't figure out how to get me out. They were like, he's gonna burn down there. He's gonna burn down there. He's gonna burn,
Gentry Ward: Deck statement. He's gonna burn like fucking Hades.
RJ Steiskal: and then we'll give him Article 15s, and then we'll have a paper trail of actual shit that he's done because everything else we just didn't know.
Gentry Ward: Bro, y'all see Jimmy how pale he is. No, yeah. That dude had to have worked nights his whole career because that dude would fucking die out there. Like when we were guiding hunts and stuff, he started looking brown like me. And I was like, damn, you guys freaking you're starting to get some color, you know? He's like, bro, this heat that he like if you ain't if you're not a my daughter's down there right now in she's going to tech school in Air Force. And She's the only one in her, I don't know, class or whatever that is from Texas. And everyone's We don't know what the Chair Force does either. Yeah. So she does we don't either. I I can't figure it out. We just know they get paid
RJ Steiskal: Something like this.
Gentry Ward: well. Yeah, I just know that like her quality of life is way better than anything worse conditions we were ever put in. So anyway, she she says that
RJ Steiskal: Glad to hear it.
Gentry Ward: everybody's given her Shit, because she's from Texas, you know. She's like, it's still fucking hot for me. Like, no, this sucks still. Yeah. She's like, Yeah, I'm from here, but it's still fucking hot. You know, and she sent me a picture, she's got a nasty burn on the back of the nape of her neck from hot brass, and I was like, Dope. Hell yeah. Yeah, I was like, wait till you go to the fifty cal raid. She's I don't think we do that. Listen. I was like, yeah. During during
RJ Steiskal: Yeah, I don't think we know what those are.
Gentry Ward: my tenure. up at Fort Wayne right, we were striker unit at the time. They're not up there anymore, thank God, because those vehicles do not belong in that type of weather. I can see that. But we're we're doing a live fire. Neither does it neither does a fucking Subaru. What the fuck? Anyway. We're doing a live fire and like we're we're in the Yukon, right? It is beautiful. And we're just fucking mountains up. Like They're like, hey, you're gonna be supported by fire. I'm like, all right, cool. So they pull I
RJ Steiskal: You ever shot tracers under the Aurora Borealis?
Gentry Ward: I'll pull up. Yeah. What?
RJ Steiskal: You ever shot tracers under the Aurora Borealis?
Gentry Ward: That's gotta be fucking cool. Dude, sick. I got a of my. I've never seen it. I I got a picture, I'll show you. I tried to fucking I put in four picture of my striker. Alaska and JBLM and I never fucking left Hood. Like that, you know, they fucking left me there to die and burn. Yeah. I joined Fucking
RJ Steiskal: They stuck me at Lewis forever.
Gentry Ward: mad. Dude, I joined the army to get the fuck out of Texas and got stationed at fucking Fort Hood. Who the f
RJ Steiskal: Told them send me as far as we can. But not outside of America, because this is the greatest country on earth, and I'm only going outside of it if it means fighting for it. I ain't a conus nothing, dude. I'm in a combat zone or I'm conus.
Gentry Ward: Yeah, keeping those motherfuckers from coming over here. Yeah. Yeah. True. Man, I tell you what. I'm
RJ Steiskal: Except when I went on training.
Gentry Ward: sitting there. I'm up on top of this mountain. They're like fighting the like dismounts are fighting down in the valley below us. And there's another mountain, you know, right there. And we're just lighting it up. All the support by fire. So we have Martin Nineteens and fifty cal shooting at it. As well as I think we had some engineer guys out there and mortars, so we're we're dropping everything on it, right? It's the snow conditions. No, it was middle of summer for this one. Okay. now I mean I've been out there in the middle of winter and it sucks, but 50
RJ Steiskal: Probably looks even crazier in the snow.
Gentry Ward: cal rounds, dude. My RWS just shit the bed. So I had to freehand it. I'm like, all right, fuck it. So I get up there and I'm fucking going after it. And then finally I'm like, all right, I need some I need some rounds. Jump back down there, grab some more rounds, throw, throw up a couple cases. doing my reload actions and brass is just flying everywhere. I start shooting again, brass is flying everywhere, and big ass 50 cal rounds are just going down my kit, dude. I'm just lay just fucking trying my best to shoot. The guns going like this. The OCs
RJ Steiskal: Mm-hmm.
Gentry Ward: are like, hey, hey, John, like fuck you.
RJ Steiskal: I can't hear nothing. What?
Gentry Ward: What? They're calling over the radio. Cease fire, ceasefire.
RJ Steiskal: Ha ha ha!
Gentry Ward: What I think this gutter had a fucking seizure. Fucking I can't hear shit because I got the damn headphones hot wired to the striker and I'm listening to Katie Perry like Caliph on your girls. I'm just doot doot do do do do yeah. Fucking OCs are standing on a building to the side and they're like, Hey, hey, and I'm like, hell yeah. Dude, it was a fucking great time. I had a fucking negli negli negligent discharge on a right before a convoy in Kuwait. here's a striker, sorry. my god. Yeah. So that I mean I'll pop it up but like show either real quick. Yeah, it didn't Yeah, that picture doesn't that video doesn't do it justice. That picture's amazing. I mean live seeing it. yeah. Nothing like it. But yeah, I freaking we're fixing a convoy and I like swung side and I just put my freaking hands on the fucking triggers, dude, and do do do do do right. And I fucking like fuck and my fucking LTs down under me. And he's like, You good, Domina? I fucking stop the ground. We're ready to roll, sir. Let's fucking roll. And he's like, fuck yeah. I'm like, holy fucking shit, dude. I throw my fucking bot lava around my face. I was all fuck, dude. We get
RJ Steiskal: Boy said it's a confidence grip.
Gentry Ward: bro, I'm fucking going down there. I'm just like white knuckling this shit. Like what the fuck just happened? Yeah. You're looking around, you're like, Test fire, test fire, test fire. Right on the side.
