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Speaker 1: Ah, beaut Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, military news and straight talk with the guys and the community soft rep Radio on time on Target. Yes, I know people are used to hearing you say soft Rep dot Com on time on Target, especially Jack Murphy was next to me, but I had to change it because it's now the news Rep dot Com. But we're still calling the show softwarep Radio is still talk for special operations, uh news and dude, this is the first time I've seen you in over a month and a half, I think, yeah, about six weeks. I was otherwise predisposed traveling around Italy, Switzerland and uh. And then when we finally went on our honeymoon to Nepal. You know, I want to hear all about that, because that's a pretty epic honeymoon. Most people go to I don't know, like Caye Coup to Jamaica for a few days. You took a pretty epic trip. Yeah. Well, um, we had wanted to do something interesting. We wanted to go do something that, um, go somewhere we haven't been before, and something that has nothing to do with work, not not a country that we've covered work wise. Um, and Paul was one of those places. I had wanted to go and hike on the Annapurnas Circuit um for a long long time, since I read about it in a book many years ago. Is that where the pictures from that Benny took of both of you hiking? Probably? Probably? Yeah. Um. So when we got married back in October, we couldn't take our honeymoon at the time because Benny was heading to Afghanistan to work on her documentary and I was heading to Serbia working on a television show. Um. So like literally we were both I think I took off one day after the wedding and Benny left the day after May. So we were both heading off in different directions. Um. So over the summer we we took our honeymoon. We we actually went to Italy, you know where she's from. Uh. Initially, UM, we went with you know, with my kid, a bunch of other people's kids and you know, the parents, and we went up to Switzerland and so we're hiking around up there. Um. Took the kids to the circus, all kinds of fun stuff. Came back to Italy. Um, and then we took my daughter with us. We went to Sardinia for a week. Um. So we're hanging out of the beach and all that kind of fun stuff, snorkeling. Um. And then we came back and um. And you know, my my daughter went with her mother and they had their little vacation, and Benny and I flew to Nepal and you know, we were in kathman Do for a couple of days. Um. We're actually in Paton, which is like next to kathman Do. Um. Then I went down to Pacara um, which is kind of like the big staging area for everyone who goes hiking up in the mountains. Um. And then we went and hiked on the Annapurna Circuit for a week. We went up to the a parent A base camping back um and it was amazing. It was beautiful. It's the off season in August, so it has the advantage of there being very few tourists out there. Um. But you do have to deal with the rain. It range just about every day, so if you time it right, you can avoid the rain. But you know, sooner or later you're gonna get stuck. Um, so you put your rain jacket on and and suck it. Up. Um. But because of that, I mean, you're hiking through you know, a mountainous train obviously, but it's all jungle. Um, it's almost like, I guess it is a rainforest and um, you know, just tons of streams and everything, waterfalls, and you're hiking around the mountains and then as you're heading up to the base camp, you're you're walking through a valley and the valley is getting more and more narrow and it's just like these huge waterfalls on each side coming down and there's a river down at the bottom of the valley. Um. Yeah, and there's these guesthouses you stay at every day. Um. They get a bit more rustic the deeper you go, because when you go to the base camp, there is um. They actually have very reliable electricity because they have micro hydro electric all all those waterfalls and all that running water I've talked about, they have their it's powering generators, so they have pretty good electricity. Um. But there's no roads, so it's porters carrying everything. And it's also a classic like supply and demand issue. So if you want a beer at the end of the day, the beer gets more expensive each day because some poor guy has to carry that up the up through the mountain. Yeah. Um, but totally different, you know, huge culture shock, I'm sure compared to what you're used to. I mean, although you've been all over the world, after you've been to Afghanistan, there is nothing that can really shock you, you know. Um, and Nepal is nothing like Afghanistan. And Nepal is like what Afghanistan could have been if it wasn't totally jacked up because it's mountainous. They could you know, a country like that could probably have like a ski industry and uh in a backpacking industry and uh, Nepaul is very smart about that. They're very they're very welcoming of tourists. Um. You know, people should go there. You should go visit. It's a hell of a lot of fun. Um And yeah, they welcome you, they take care of you. It's a Buddhist and Hindu culture. Um. You know. It's like I've been in some countries, um, like in West Africa where it's like the scam starts the second you get off the airplane, like everyone's just trying to empty your pockets. Um. Then again then again in New York cities like that. No, no man there's nothing nothing like that where like you literally get off the plane and some guy comes and grab your bags and wants to carry them for you like thirty feet and then he's going to demand money from you. Yeah. I mean it's just it's insane. UM. But Nepaul is not like that. Um. People are very honest, UM, very straightforward. You know. It's uh, it's just a lot of fun, great environment. Um. It was even when uh we were you have to drive from Picara out to kind of where the trailhead starts for Annapurna, and they're supposed to be that day a bunch of maoists protesting in the streets or rioting, um, depending on who you talk to. And they put me in the front seat of the car, um because they want if that happens, they want them to see the white guy, because they won't throw rocks at the car because you know, they they don't want to hurt the tourist industry. Even the maoists, I guess don't want to hurt the tourist industry. So um, yeah, very friendly, very cool with all that, UM. And it was just it was an amazing trip. I mean, we hugked up to I think four thousand feet where the base camp was, and it's just beautiful. And then from there Italy, which I believe Benny is still stuck. Yeah. Yeah, well from there we went back to Kathmando, spent a few days there, um, and then um back to Italy. Uh, we're in Milan, and then we're in Turinte for a few days. UM. They're amazing museums. In turn, there's the Egyptian Museum. There's there's some really cool stuff. But in the meantime, while all of this was happening, UM, Benny's um, her visa stuff got screwed up, like really screwed up. So you know she's working. It's it's like stupid immigration technicalities. Um. You know, the immigration system has been a mess for a long time. But you know she's dealing with the aftermath of that now and they think she's like a male order bride for now. You know, it's not even that. It's um, it's just like little technical details about like how you fill out the paperwork and where you go after we're in just stupid, stupid shit. But it ends up having a real repercussion. Luckily she's family there. I mean, if she didn't, that would kind of suck. Well, I mean then it would be a question of, well, okay, where did she come from? And yeah no, But I just mean, you know, she has a place to stay, family and all that, So it's not she'll be she'll be Okay, it's just a huge hassle. And you know, her home is here with me, and she's not able to you know, if she doesn't get her paperwork straightened out soon. Um, you know, I'll go see her next month. But I mean it could take a while for her to get straightened out. The worst case scenario crazy. Yeah. Yeah, so she's pretty upset by all of that. So yeah, it's a lot that's I'm sure I'll have to deal with for you. I mean, I just try to help and be supportive, you know, it's best I can. Yeah. You know a lot of people think that when you get married that your spouse just automatically gets like a green card or citizenship or something. It does. I thought I thought it doesn't work like that at all. Wow. Okay, interesting man. Well, since you've been away, we've had some really awesome people in the podcast. Boys Gracy, Pat McNamara, my friend Seawan, the Butcher from Serious Sex m who, by the way, I put it video up on Instagram, got to start the Slayer chant at a Slayer show on stage in front of like tens of thousands of screaming fans, which was pretty cool and it was fun just talking metal with those guys, and I ended up just doing stuff we don't normally do and we don't talk, and you know, I think most people enjoyed it. Other people were like, you know, what, do you guys not talk special ops anymore? But when you're here, we get into all of that. I mean, the next guest we have coming on is Sean Parnell, who's a former Navy seal, so I'm sure we'll get into all that with him. But the biggest news really since you've been away with the site is the transition from soft rep to news rap. As I says, I said, this show is still softwarep radio. We're still covering the same stuff that we normally do. Um but a lot of people are, you know, understandably confused with the name change and they're thinking, you know, did the psite get bought out or something like that. But it's still you know, the brainchild of you and Brandon Watt. Yeah, I mean, we just went through a rebranding process because you know, when we looked at it, we realized that we were already kind of exceeding our original mandate. I mean, when we started the website, what was two thousand and twelve, um, the goal was to be the number one news source for special operations news and information on the special operations world, and we kind of blew right through that goal um years ago. And you know, we cover all kinds of different issues. We've been covering all sorts of different issues for many years, um in the defense and foreign policy realm um. So we just kind of made a decision, like you know, the soft rep brand um, the name you know, Special Operations Report kind of like holds us back in that sense because that's not all we're doing anymore. So maybe the decision and change, uh just kind of expand a little bit or choose a name that better reflects what we've already been doing. Yeah, well that makes sense. Um. The biggest you know news that I know that you were not you don't care about it that much, and I kind of feel the same way as you, but that we're eates to what we do because of actually really because of Nate Boyer. We had on Colin Kaepernick getting signed to Nike, the outrage on kind of both sides of the aisle. But the thing that I thought, or at least that I'm happy about is I will freely admit I am riding the Nate Boyer bandwagon of him getting a ton of publicity because this So you know, I want more people to listen to our show. So I've tweeted out, you know, the show again, and the last show that I put was actually the best of which included Nate Boyer because I felt it was newsworthy for right now. And Nate Boyer retweeted it out and it got um retweeted by the founder and president of I A v A. And you know, a ton of people are looking at it, so that means more ears on the podcast. And by the way, Nate Boyer, from what I've seen, has been such a stand up guy in all ways. Um. I even saw that when we originally did the interview, there were the usual people out there of like I can't believe you went on Software up Radio and Nate Boyer saying like, look, I don't agree with every single thing ever reported by those guys. But part of having a discussion is that, you know, you got to talk to people that you might not agree with on everything. And he's just a super classy guy and you could tell from the way he handled the whole Colin Kaepernick situation, and you put that in comparison to honestly, the really immature way some other vets are handling it. I think I've I've even gotten tweets of people saying every Green Beret hates Nate Bowyer, you know, for saying that Colin Kaepernick shouldnel And it's like, really, I don't think you you, you know, represent the entire base of Green Berets. Yeah, I mean Nate is uh, you know, he's an adult, uh And I appreciate that about him. And you know, that was one of my favorite interviews too. I really enjoyed our conversation. I mean, who's saying that every Green Beret hates Nate Someone who tweeted me some probably nameless, faceless guy. But there are another I saw, like Tim Kennedy was out there saying that guys are pissed at Colin Kaepernick getting this. Oh yeah, I saw something about that too, and I was like, dude, you're an active duty Green Beret, Like, why do you even like, don't you have bigger ship to fucking worry about? Yeah, I mean, of course you can have a political opinion, and why not. Everyone's gonna have an opinion, and you know, standard water cooler talk, and just speaking for myself when I was in the army, I mean, I just wanted to put assholes out of business. And I didn't give a fuck if like liberals don't like the war or you know, like the French are protesting our war in Iraq. I didn't give a ship. I remember, really, I didn't give a fuck. So I don't know like what green berets are like getting all hot and bothered about some football dude who got a Nike sponsor sponsorship? I mean, who gives a ship? Yeah, I think everybody is allowed to have their opinion on it, of course. But I actually think people should really listen back to that Nate Boyer interview because it does put things into perspective. And I the one narrative that I don't think is fair if you listen to that interview is that Colin Kaepernick did this intentionally to piss off veterans. Yeah, because that was you know, it was done. You could agree with this or disagree with it, but it was done in protest of police brutality for black for black people mainly, and people want to conflate it. It's like, oh, he's disrespecting the troops or something like that. It's like, and he wouldn't have agreed to meet with Nate Boyer and also asked his suggestion of what to do if he had this disdain for the military. So I just I think, no matter what your opinion is, their narrative should be correct of what actually went down. Yeah, well, I mean, the troops are such a admired thing, one of the few institutions. It's like, why do we admired in the United States? So it's like one thing you really can't do without starting a pr disaster is disrespecting the troops. So it's like one of those things that like people use hyperbole or an exaggeration to say, like he's disrespecting the troops. It's kind of calling everyone you disagree with a nazi youthing. Yeah, and and um, it's just one of those issues that's become extremely polarized. Um. Personally, I think if it wasn't for Donald Trump, I don't know if he would have gotten this sponsorship. I kind of feel like this controversy would have gone away at some certain point, and he's brought it back up. And you know, there's a lot of people who who disagree with how the President handled this. I don't know. I mean, when I was a kid in high school, there was a kid in my class and my homeroom class who wouldn't stand for or no. He would stand, but he wouldn't recite the pledge of allegiance. And I can't remember like his real it was something like thing like he, you know, doesn't like the United States, or we're doing something wrong, or but he would stand to be respectful, but he wouldn't say it or put his hand over his heart. I don't remember that dude getting a Nike endorsement. I don't remember anybody giving I don't really remember anyone giving a flying fuck. Quite frankly, it was just like, okay, whatever, bro. So I don't understand why people like just absolutely lose their mind over this subject. It's like, listen, we what's America's population? Where three hundred million something million people right approximately? I believe three fifty million people. It's something something like that. Out of a population of three hundred and something million people, somebody's gonna do something you don't like. Like, I don't want to shock you here, but like, out of a population, I have a country that big. Every day there's gonna be somebody in America who's going to do something that you disagree with, something that you think is offensive, or something that's just downright stupid. I don't personally wanted to vote so much of my psychological, mental energy, emotional energy to every dumb person who does something dumb in America, like it's just not worth your time. Yeah, And I think it's just something that's easy to react to. I mean, I look at one of the more recent episodes that I did with Luke Ryan, and you know, Luke did all this coverage of what's going on in Burma and the travesty is happening, and the UN get involved. It's more than a travesty, it's a genocide. Yeah, absolutely, children being slaughtered, and you see way less reaction to that than a guy not staying Yeah, it's easier to get piste off about some dude that takes a knee at a dumb fucking football game than it is to deal with the fact that we're waging an immoral and unethical war in Afghanistan, the pulling soldiers there with no fucking strategy whatsoever. We had an n c O get killed in Afghanistan like a couple of days ago. We're sending guys over there year after year after year, making no fucking difference in that country whatsoever. We're just sending guys over there so that they fill up fucking body bags. And American doesn't give a flying funk about that, but they support the troops. Get the funk out of here with this bullshit. It's like fake patriotism. Go funk yourself. We're gonna send guys over there. They're gonna die for nothing. Because when I say unethical and immoral, I mean it is unethical and immoral to deploy soldiers to combat without any sort of endgame, without any sort of strategy. That is fucking wrong. It is so wrong. I don't even know what the what more to say about it. But we don't give a funk about that. We give a funk about some guy who takes a knee in a football game like Seriously, who do you really blame though for this being the ongoing thing? Because you have someone like General Maddis now running Secretary of Defense, and he's he's a guy who knows about the war in afghanist he does there. So you know, I would think that he would have a good strategy and and that this administration would try to have a departure from what we was seen during the Obama years and and the Bush here. Yeah, I mean I don't want to make excuses for any politician or any political appointee. Um, you know, Maddis being the latter. Um, But we haven't really I mean, he does take some of the blame because I mean we haven't heard him really advance any sort of strategy. I haven't heard any kind of exit strategy from him. Um. And I'm sure he's responding to instructions from the White House. Um. So he has to contend with that, and he has to contend with the type of White House administration that we have today. UM. So, I mean that's a good question. I why hasn't anyone stepped up to the plate and Trump, you know, is this uh, you know, he's this unconventional leader, right he doesn't really give a ship what people think of him. Why hasn't he just dropped the hammer on this and say, look, we're bringing the guys home, or say look we're going to change our strategy and this is this is the new strategy, this is what we're gonna do, whatever the case is. But just deploying guys year after year, you know, it's the definition of insanity, right what we're doing the same thing over and over thinking there's going to be a different result, but we all know there won't be a different result. On the topic of the Trump administration, I know that you just pretty much landed yesterday. So I don't know if you've gotten right. I mean, I I well to two days ago now, and I no, I have not fully caught up on America's melodrama. But have you seen the New York Times piece of the op ed I read. I read it yesterday. So did you hear about the whole um? I want to make sure I have it right here, the loadstar controversy, and there's like a conspiracy theory around it, right, Yeah, have you heard about that? I read something about so the word loadstar was used referencing John McCain in the in the piece from the anonymous source, and people are like, that's a pretty peculiar word to use, Like you don't hear that word every day. And then they look back on footage you're like dating back to two thousand one to now. Apparently Mike Pence likes to use the word load star and that's and it's used in this piece. And it's like, who uses the term load star besides this guy. There's also part of there's part of me too that like, here's this kind of stuff, and I mean, that's a wild conspiracy theory. But there's also a part of me that thinks this is like high level trolling. Yeah, but like like some somebody, um, I don't know, like some secretary that works in the sub basement of the White House wrote the op ed and like bled some information in like that, like oh this this, And then they start suspecting Mike Pence. And everyone's looking over their shoulder because what I mean, what if Trump has seen Pence had been like it wasn't you, was it? And because apparently on the same I bet he asked him about it, And on the same day that this op ed came out, Pence um departed from Trump on something, because Trump has been very hard on Jeff Sessions, and Pence on that same day was like, no, I support Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He's doing a great job. So it's interesting what a tough position that is if you're the vice president, Like do I I disagree with the president or do I throw our attorney general under the bus? Like what? And but I mean that's kind of what the op ed was referencing too. I mean it's like you're in this impossible situation with with Trump. I mean, the guy changes his mind at the drop of a hat. Um, he says things without thinking about him and the machines of the machinery, the gears of the bureaucracy has to respond to that. Um. But at the same time, what that op ed is describing is really like just short of treason. They're saying like, look, there's people here in this administration, in the inner circle that are actively undermining what the president tells us to do. And what is that. That's basically a coup It's basically a palace coup um And who was it? Um? John Kerry was in the in the press today and he's like, you know, what scares the hell out of me, because if this is true, what it means is we don't have a president because the president can say whatever he wants and the people around him in the National Security Council just do whatever the funk they want, you know, So, so and there, and those people in the NSC were not elected. Trump was one who was elected with his running mate Mike Pence. They were elected. Um, but these other people, these bureaucrats in the National Security Council, we're not elected. So it's like, who the funk is in charge? But I mean, then, do you do you think that op ed is is uh the real McCoy? Do you take that at face value? So all these different questions, what do you do you think it was a low level person trying to drum up some craziness or um no, no, I think it's it's somebody. It probably is somebody, um, fairly high up in the National Security Council who is just frustrated and angry and upset with the way things have gone down. Yeah, well we'll see I know that that that um you know, who knows. But on Twitter today they were showing the Tucker Carlson said he's like fairly certain who did it, and they've been reaching out, but a lot of people could say they're fairly certain if you did this, we'll see And it all seems kind of. It all coincides very nicely with a controversy around the Bob Woodward book that is coming out, which apparently is quite damning. Um is it all coordinated? I don't know, yeah, um, And the only other big piece of news I saw today. UM. I don't know if there's anything else you want to get into. Um, but in India major you know, just I would say gay rights, human rights victory. Um that basically gay sex was illegal in India. They're now striking that down. So the gay community in India, I know, it's very happy about it. And and worldwide, I mean, because that is that's a big deal, that's a big ruling. Yeah. Well you sense that India is um kind of at this like cultural and historic moment um, like a pivot point. I guess, um, you know, as they develop as a country, all the stuff that's come out about women's rights in India, Um, the courts kind of covering up rape, um and kind of re victimizing rape victims. Um. So hopefully they're slowly but surely straightening things out. UM. But I don't know enough about Indian politics to know I helped to comment on it. Yeah, I figured I would mention it though, because that is a big that's a big land mark change. Before we get to Jackie Gray, who's the former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. I was just wondering if you want to mention anything else about the change from news you know to news Rap, and also like what stopp you're currently working on for the site. Now that you're back, finally people are happy to have you back. So I mean, there's uh, not a whole lot is changing. I mean, like I said, news Rap is really uh a name that we went to just to reflect what we were already doing on the website. I think we are going to cover, um, some financial news. We already started to do that actually, which is kind of new and we we hadn't necessarily done that previously. There's a writer doing finance, right, there's two, there's two actually. UM SOFTWAREP Radio remains as is. We're gonna keep chugging along on this. UM. As far as what I'm working on, UM, I'm continuing to work on a pretty interesting store or that I've actually been working on for a long time, and I've probably mentioned it before here, but I'm hoping to wrap that up and then UM. I'm also revisiting an old soft Rep story because I'm putting the finishing touches on my memoir. So the last couple of days, I've been revisiting the story I wrought I wrote UM a few years back about UM a sexual predator in the hundred and first Airborne Division. UM, a squad leader who's victimizing the soldiers in his platoon. And so I'm going back through all of my old notes, the court martial transcripts. UM. It's uh, it's probably one of the more gnarly stories I've ever worked on, and it's the one that's stuck with me, probably quite frankly, UM a lot of it because one of my sources, UM died while I was writing that article. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah. He Uh. The family never disclosed UM exactly what happened, but it was heavily heavily speculated what happened from what I remember. Yeah, I mean I think he passed away UM because he was struggling um with the trauma of what had happened to him because the army had his chain of command had sold him out and betrayed him and many other soldiers as well. Um. It was a systematic failure within that unit. Um. But anyway, if you want to go read the article, I think it's called band of Brothers, sex crimes and cover up. UM. It's uh, it was. It was a tough one to work on, A tough one or right, but even tougher for the soldiers who went through that bullshit. UM, just completely nuts. But anyway, so I've been revisiting that topic um to write about and it's not that article, but you know, related to it. I would love to get the guy on the podcast who you know, went forward about what was going on at the v A, which I'm not going to say who it was. Technically he's been on the podcast for a few minutes and you know he would I'd love to get him to speak about it because I think it's it's something that needs to be I could ask um. You know a lot of times addressed. A lot of times victims don't want to go on the record because not because they're afraid to talk about it, um, But they don't want to be known as like I'm the guy who got my balls fondled. You know, no one wants to be the Actually believe he referenced on Facebook that like, hey, this trial is over. You know, I'm glad, Like I'm pretty sure he wrote a staff maybe, but that's a little bit different than going on a soft Wrap podcast and saying, you know, I got my dick fondled or I got my balls fondled by this asshole. Um. You know, when people have careers and they're trying to you know, create a life for themselves, they don't necessarily want to be the guy that. Yeah, now I get that. I understand that he's a great dude too. Yeah, no, he really is. Um. That was That was another that really horrific story that that asshole at v A, who's who's molesting all these male soldiers? Just like what the fuck? And And by the way, that's another angle why it should come out, because I do think, you know, there's rightfully a lot of attention on sexual abuse of women, but it is not just purely you know, it just it is mainly a problem that occurs with women, but there are people like this individual what we're talking. Yeah, yeah, well I UM, when I was writing that story about the the guy in the hundred and first, I asked the Pentagon for some statistics about UM male versus female victims of sexual assault, and UM, it's interesting because there are, it is, more women than men, UM, but women report much more often. UM. Men don't report as often. UM. I think because there's such a stigma. Socially, we understand and and we accept that a woman can be raped by a man. We know this is a real thing, it happens, UM. But when it comes to a man raping another man, now all these other questions get asked. You know, that their accusations that the person that the victim was a homosexual, that they were asking for it. I mean that's the way we may have treated women decades ago, Like if they came in and they were raped, Like, oh, you were asking for it, why didn't you say no? Why don't you just unfortunately, why didn't fight back? Yeah? Which is still you know, there's still those people out there. Why why were you wearing this? Actually this is kind of still it still happens. Yeah. I don't know if you saw the funeral for a wreath of Franklin with that kind of groping ariana Grande, Yeah, and people saying like, why didn't you do anything right there? And you know, you don't know in that position, You're on stage in front of tons of people. It's a weird scenario. But he clearly was being inappropriate. And while the story I wrote is that the um the soldiers were being abused in Afghanistan in combat and I mean I mean literally they were like going outside the wire doing combat patrols all the time. Their base was getting bombarded by mortar fire every day. So I mean, think about you have to prioritize, like do I deal with this sexual assault stuff or do I deal with fucking Johnny Gihad that's trying to kill me? You know. So that's just an additional kind of friction that exists. And it didn't help, of course that the perpetrator was actually a competent squad leader and like in combat he was everyone told me, even people who hated him were like he was fearless and he was competent. He made sure people did their job. He would run and run towards the sound of the guns. I mean, he did his job. Um It was when they got back to the base that things became completely inappropriate. Crazy man, and any other stories that you're a couple, um, a couple of different stories, UM, A couple of things that have been brewing for a long time that i'd like to I'd like to wrap up the most the most important stories are always the ones that take a long time. Yeah, and and are really hard to hammer down. Um. But you know, you just keep working on them and working on them until you have some kind of breakthrough. Um. But hopefully we'll have some other interesting stuff coming. Cool. All right, Well, we have Jackie Gray standing by, so we're gonna get right to him, former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. Let's dial him up. So joining us for the first time on SOFTWAP Radio is Jackie Gray. Jack is a former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. We haven't really talked Red Circle Foundation in a while, but there's been um some changes, and I know that you're you're pretty newly on board there, right, Jack, I am. I've been here with the Red Circle roughly nine months now. Very cool man. Well, before we get into like what's going on with Red Circle Foundation. I think it'd be interesting to get into your background UM as an army medic and joining the army and all that. Yeah, UM join the army right after college UM back in two thousand and eight, UM stayed enlisted. I decided to go and the enlisted route. I wanted to be a Mustang UM and then eventually commissioned, but I never ended up commissioning UM. I went through basic at Fort Knox UM w d A. I t down to Fort sam and then got to go to jump school and then got placed at JB lm UM and Tacoma, Washington, and then finished my active duty stent and went into the Oregon National Guard UM and then finished out the rest of my army career there. UM spent a total of about ten years. And yeah, that was pretty much my army in a nutshell. So then, how did you make the transition from the army into what you're doing now and into nonprofits and all that. UM. I kind of just fell into it, honestly. I has started working with my old high school and went in for helped out doing some volunteer work and helped out with them and kind of fell into you know, asking them if they had a mentorship program and then started UM their mentorship program and turned it into a nonprofit. And that's kind of how I kind of fell into the nonprofit realm. And then, UM, while that was going on, UM, a buddy of mine was in a conversation with the vice chairman for Red Circle and and they were they were looking for somebody to come in and help out and kind of refixed with the restructure that was going on, and he mentioned me, and I got in contact with them, and then I kind of just went from there. Can you talk a little bit then about what the Red Circle Foundation does, because I know you guys do a lot of awesome work. Yeah, I mean well, Red Circle Foundation obviously we started back in two thousand twelve. M. We do a lot of work with the special operation community and their families. UM. We do a lot of emergency gap funding, UH, financial assistance, UM helping with medical equipment and devices that Try Care and other insurance companies cannot don't cover, and what the families can afford themselves. UM. We've been doing a lot of academic and enrichment scholarships for their kids and their families. UM, helping out sending the kids to camps, getting them, you know, active in the community as well, and that's pretty much very cool. Man. Did you have any UM, because I know Brandon was telling me you might have some stories in particular of some families you guys have been helping out. I do. I have a few. UM. Most recently, I mean we helped out uh SF Guy UM. He got hurt overseas in Afghanistan, was shot actually in the head with an RPGA, had his right side of his skull removed UM by the shrapnel and had several surgeries to repair it. UM he had issues with the vestible system and it's purtigo, which caused issues with him laying on his back and he wasn't able to sleep, so tried care. I was trying to do whatever they can and UM couldn't afford to buy him a bed, so they gave us a call and we bought him a bed to help him sleep that was prescribed by the doctor. UM. Another story we worked just recently had an assack Guy UM a p J. UM got injured during training. UM had some surgeries, got hooked on the pain meds, got addicted and went into rehab, went through all the VA's rehab as well and wasn't working out, got into a Christian found funded rehabilitation center and has been going through that, and we actually helped out with his family with helping him go through the rehab with them. Um. And then, by the way, that's like such an unfortunate one that you hear about so much, and it's just this the cycle that happens, I think with veterans of getting prescribed um, you know, to legitimate prescriptions and then getting hooked on That happens all the time. Yeah, Opium opiates are very very tough and very dangerous. I mean, you know, obviously they're the number one addictive drug right now going on. So that's the issue with a lot of these guys when they go through these procedures and stuff. So it sucks and it's really sad to hear, but we're doing where we can to try to help them and you know, get them back on their feet. So absolutely, yeah. I had some other stories. I got actually one of the testimonials from a soldier who we recently helped. He was a Seventh Group guy. UM, he kind of sent us a letter and kind of just wanted me to read it out to you guys, if you guys don't mind me. UM, his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. UM. He was still enlisted, was a senior listed at the academy at so Calm. UM. She had an incredibly rare disease. It was very aggressive and that typically was a very and they had a poor diagnosis and prognosis, and they didn't give him a short lifespan. UM, but the family dug in and they started the fight. UM try Care, which is great, was only able to cover us so much. They gave us a call and they were constantly driving back up fourth hours away from their home to the hospital where the cancer treatment was getting taken care of. UM, and it just started hindering. His wallet contact is so Calm, and so Calm coordinated them with us and since then we've been helping him out, working with him to being able to transfer his wife and him and his also his daughter. All they all got diagnosed with cancer, all but roughly within the last couple of years. Is that like environmentally induced, like something on the base could be Who knows, UM, I don't. I wouldn't say that could have been genetics to UH with their financial struggles, I mean I mean when you go from one to the next and to the next, and you know, it starts to hit that wallet really hard, especially you know when being in the military and our budgets and our our wallets aren't that big in the first place. So that's insane. So we're helping them getting their find you know, family back on their feet, helping them, uh, continue their fight, and making sure the trial drugs work for his wife and you know, continue on and supporting them. And so he sent me this and just wanted me to kind of just tell you guys what we do for him, and this is what it looks like from coming from a soldier's perspective. Yeah, that's insane. I'm glad you guys are out there doing that though. It is great. I mean we're so small and which which I feel is kind of one of our forts because it allows us to kind of just get more personal with the soldiers and family, is that we're helping out as the bigger nonprofits is kind of more of like a runthrough, I feel, where you just kind of pushed through with paperwork and onto the next kind of thing. Yeah. Man, um, So from what we were talking about when I just spoke to you for the first time the other day. Um, you were saying there's also some events coming up that that you'll be holding soon. Yeah, definitely. Uh, well, I can kind of go briefly. This year. Since I'm in the Portland, Oregon area, I've been trying to do a lot of more local outreach as well as nationwide. Um. Are there a lot of vets in Portland or Oregon in general? Yeah? Actually Oregon. From last statistics that I've read, there are more people in the military from Oregon than any other state according to this statistic. But I don't know how accurate that might be. But um, there's no active basis in Oregon. There's only garden Reserve bases here. Um, but very pro military state. But they don't know out about Red Circle. So I've been trying to do a lot of REA reaching out here. UM. Got to do work with not another nonprofit that works with veterans and taking them out hunting and fishing. We helped out at their benefit. Um is that? Um, because I I've heard of a few charities like that. You do you know what it was? It was the Falling Outdoors. Okay, that's not the one I was thinking of. But yeah, there seems to be a few UM charities that do that, which is really cool. Yeah, and these guys are a great bunch of guys. UM. Actually, the treasuries are currently still active. UM. He was a buddy of mine and he was the one who brought me on and he was like, hey, you should come out to the benefit. There'll be some SF guys, some ranger dudes out here if you want to get them involved, here's the way to do it. We went out to their benefit. Was great. UM. That was back in June. I did the Portland Vancouver the Reverend Warriors Silky March I k I marched that in representation for Red Circle. UM. We did a lot of work with the minor league baseball team this last this last summer UM, they had their Salute Service Week. We were out there with the booth and then got to go on and do some interviews UM. And then coming up we have the Warrior Care Coalition Conference in Tampa in November, as well as another TFO banquet which is their national banquet, which will be in October. UM. And then I'll be up in New York in December with your guys as the Hurricanes benefit and then um, I did some work. Oh, I did some work recently with the Seahawks. Seattle Seahawks went up to their training camp and did some i'll reach with them and kind of got to let those guys know kind of what we do and who we are as well. So yeah, a lot of great things going on. We got Heroes Holiday coming up, which is where we sponsor a couple of families Special Operation families who are in need and we take care of their you know, their full holiday from Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, from everything from the food to the decorations, the tree, the presidence and everything like that. So very cool man, Yes, staying busy. So um if people want to check out Red Circle Foundation, it's Red Circle Foundation dot org. Um good having you on, man, I Like I said, um, it was the first time I spoke to you just the other day and Brandon was like, you gotta have Jackie on. So I I appreciate you coming on with us and when there's like something big on the horise and just hait me up any time. Man, definitely. But I appreciate you guys having me on, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to you know, here about us again and you know put Red Circle back and you guys limeline. Yeah, of course anytime. Great having Jackie Gray on the podcast for the first time. UM, as I said to him, when there's like more specific stuff on the horizon, he'd be great to have back on. But yeah, be sure to check out the website and donate and help these guys in need. It's Red Circle Foundation dot com. And be sure to check out the Create Club. The exclusive collaboration watch we did with NFW Watches is one of the next big items coming soon in the premium Create Zack. We're just talking to Scott Whitner and I know that the first ship and of those arrived at the warehouse, so they'll be going out soon. If you're a premium tier member, um, because we do have different tiers of membership depending on how prepared you want to be, and gift options are available as well. UM. Scott and the guys are currently working on bringing you custom products everything from sunglass cases to E d C bags and other manly products. It's a club fore men by men. You can check that all out at Create Club dot Us. Once again, that's Create Club dot Us. And for your dog owners. Check this out. You're gonna love this. We've just partnered with Kuna. They have a team of trained canine handlers picking out a box for your dog each month of healthy treats and training aids. It's custom built for your dog's size and your dog's age as well. The products are US sourced, all natural, and they not only promote a healthy diet, but also promote being active with your dog. So whether we're talking a pit bull or a little chihuahua, this is just what you're looking for. You can see all that at Kuna dot Dog. That's Kuna dot Dog. It's efficient for you. Your dog is going to appreciate it as well, of course, and that's spelled SeeU and A dot d o G. Check it out. Also, I gotta remind you guys who are listening. For a limited time you can receive a fifty percent discounted membership to the spec Ops Channel. That's our channel that offers the most exclusive shows, documentaries and interviews covering the most exciting military content today. The spec Ops channel premier show Training Cell follows former Special Operations Forces as they participate in the most advanced training the country. Everything from shooting schools, defensive driving, jungle and winter warfare, climbing, and much more. Again, you can watch this content by subscribing to the spec Ops channel and that's at spec ops channel dot com and take advantage of a limited time offer of fifty off your membership that's only four a month, and check out the app. Chris did a great job developing that um with that man As you were mentioning earlier in the intro, your book coming out very soon. I'm looking forward to that. Well not very soon, y okay, Well, so wait, what's the actual release date? Uh? According to Amazon Apri, is that what it's at. I mean, people are pre ordering for to come out of ap I'll ask my publisher and find out. You think that might get pushed back a little, you're saying, I don't know. Cool, all right, Well, um, from what you were saying though, it sounds like the book is just about done. Yeah, the manuscript is just about done. Um and uh, and then we'll do the final selection I guess on the picture inserts, um and all. That's all the associated stuff. And I don't know. I'm excited to get it out there. There's a lot of information in the book. There's just a lot of stuff. I mean all the stuff I did in the military, and then all this stuff, A lot of this stuff I did as a journalist and traveling Syria, traveling to Iraq, even some stuff going to the Philippines, UM, South Korea and the d m Z in there. I can't remember if I wrote about that or not. Um, so all kinds of different ship. It's a it's gonna be there's a lot of material in there, and uh, it's definitely going to be different than other military memoirs. I'm excited for a man. As we often say, pre orders matter, so go on Amazon pre order. Um. You know what, I've noticed the emails slowing down because I think Jack has not been here. So I could answer radio questions all day, but when it comes to specifics of special operations military stuff, you guys know, I don't have any answer to a lot of that. So email us again if you have those type of questions that Jack could answer. It's soft Rep dot radio at soft rep dot com. Soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com. Uh, next episode is actually gonna fall on UM. I believe it would normally fall on nine twelve, but I'm gonna try to Yeah, I'm gonna try to get it up on nine eleven and revisit Brandon Webin I visiting the UM eleven Memorial exhibit, which was great, Um, you know, it was a touching experience, and also hearing the words from the victims families and just getting a tour of of all of that architecture that was there from the towers. We went with a guy who was a firefighter at the time who experienced all of it. Lost guys. Um, So if you never heard that, we're gonna re air that, and then the next guest will be Sean Parnell, former Navy seal. So it'll be a good week of shows. Um, and good to have you back, man. I've been holding it down myself, which has gotten a little boring after Well, you did a good job though, I mean I saw some of the stuff you were doing. I mean you had some super cool guests on. Yeah, yeah, Hoist Gracy C. J. Woodrooff was cool, as I said, Pat mcnamarish on The Butcher, and then you know, just writers that we've regularly had on like Luke Ryan, Alex Hollings and um, Kurt Schroeder all those guys. Yeah, I'm glad to be home, though, I mean, had an awesome summer, can't complain. Yeah that is, that's a pretty epic summer and your daughter is probably gonna remember forever. Oh yeah, I mean she had a great time. I mean, I mean she basically had two vacations because she she went with me to Switzerland and Sardinia and then she went with her mom to the Mall dives. So yeah, I think she's she's well traveled. She's back in school today, Yeah, today, the first day yesterday was cool. She's probably like I don't want to go back. That's how I always was. But yeah, she starts complaining, and she starts complaining because you know, they do a lot of work now in school. Yeah. At a certain point though, it's also like, you know, you want to see your friends and all that type of thing, and yeah, not hanging out with these old people. So all right, Well, thanks for checking out as always, guys, UM, please check out that next show. Um, if you've never visited the A nine and nine eleven Moral Exhibit, you really should. But I think this will give you like an inside perspective of what's there. I really enjoyed visiting there. Um, you know, I'll talk about it on the show, but I remember we've talked about where we were when the Trade Center, Um, you know, when when the plane hit the Trade Center. But I was here on Long Island, and I remember seeing the smoke from the towers and stuff, and I remember losing family friends that day and stuff. So I think it's something that every American really should visit if you're here in New York. Um, and you'll like the show. I think if if that was a day that either you know, it's so from the age range of this show, Like there's people who experienced it the same way that we did, and then there's these younger kids who were like seventeen eighteen the lists and who really did experience it. I mean, it's it's hard to believe how long it's been. So the war has just been going on as long as every Yep. Yeah crazy. All right, Well, um, have a great weekend, guys, we're out. You've been listening to Self Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio.
Speaker 1: Ah, beaut Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, military news and straight talk with the guys and the community soft rep Radio on time on Target. Yes, I know people are used to hearing you say soft Rep dot Com on time on Target, especially Jack Murphy was next to me, but I had to change it because it's now the news Rep dot Com. But we're still calling the show softwarep Radio is still talk for special operations, uh news and dude, this is the first time I've seen you in over a month and a half, I think, yeah, about six weeks. I was otherwise predisposed traveling around Italy, Switzerland and uh. And then when we finally went on our honeymoon to Nepal. You know, I want to hear all about that, because that's a pretty epic honeymoon. Most people go to I don't know, like Caye Coup to Jamaica for a few days. You took a pretty epic trip. Yeah. Well, um, we had wanted to do something interesting. We wanted to go do something that, um, go somewhere we haven't been before, and something that has nothing to do with work, not not a country that we've covered work wise. Um, and Paul was one of those places. I had wanted to go and hike on the Annapurnas Circuit um for a long long time, since I read about it in a book many years ago. Is that where the pictures from that Benny took of both of you hiking? Probably? Probably? Yeah. Um. So when we got married back in October, we couldn't take our honeymoon at the time because Benny was heading to Afghanistan to work on her documentary and I was heading to Serbia working on a television show. Um. So like literally we were both I think I took off one day after the wedding and Benny left the day after May. So we were both heading off in different directions. Um. So over the summer we we took our honeymoon. We we actually went to Italy, you know where she's from. Uh. Initially, UM, we went with you know, with my kid, a bunch of other people's kids and you know, the parents, and we went up to Switzerland and so we're hiking around up there. Um. Took the kids to the circus, all kinds of fun stuff. Came back to Italy. Um, and then we took my daughter with us. We went to Sardinia for a week. Um. So we're hanging out of the beach and all that kind of fun stuff, snorkeling. Um. And then we came back and um. And you know, my my daughter went with her mother and they had their little vacation, and Benny and I flew to Nepal and you know, we were in kathman Do for a couple of days. Um. We're actually in Paton, which is like next to kathman Do. Um. Then I went down to Pacara um, which is kind of like the big staging area for everyone who goes hiking up in the mountains. Um. And then we went and hiked on the Annapurna Circuit for a week. We went up to the a parent A base camping back um and it was amazing. It was beautiful. It's the off season in August, so it has the advantage of there being very few tourists out there. Um. But you do have to deal with the rain. It range just about every day, so if you time it right, you can avoid the rain. But you know, sooner or later you're gonna get stuck. Um, so you put your rain jacket on and and suck it. Up. Um. But because of that, I mean, you're hiking through you know, a mountainous train obviously, but it's all jungle. Um, it's almost like, I guess it is a rainforest and um, you know, just tons of streams and everything, waterfalls, and you're hiking around the mountains and then as you're heading up to the base camp, you're you're walking through a valley and the valley is getting more and more narrow and it's just like these huge waterfalls on each side coming down and there's a river down at the bottom of the valley. Um. Yeah, and there's these guesthouses you stay at every day. Um. They get a bit more rustic the deeper you go, because when you go to the base camp, there is um. They actually have very reliable electricity because they have micro hydro electric all all those waterfalls and all that running water I've talked about, they have their it's powering generators, so they have pretty good electricity. Um. But there's no roads, so it's porters carrying everything. And it's also a classic like supply and demand issue. So if you want a beer at the end of the day, the beer gets more expensive each day because some poor guy has to carry that up the up through the mountain. Yeah. Um, but totally different, you know, huge culture shock, I'm sure compared to what you're used to. I mean, although you've been all over the world, after you've been to Afghanistan, there is nothing that can really shock you, you know. Um, and Nepal is nothing like Afghanistan. And Nepal is like what Afghanistan could have been if it wasn't totally jacked up because it's mountainous. They could you know, a country like that could probably have like a ski industry and uh in a backpacking industry and uh, Nepaul is very smart about that. They're very they're very welcoming of tourists. Um. You know, people should go there. You should go visit. It's a hell of a lot of fun. Um And yeah, they welcome you, they take care of you. It's a Buddhist and Hindu culture. Um. You know. It's like I've been in some countries, um, like in West Africa where it's like the scam starts the second you get off the airplane, like everyone's just trying to empty your pockets. Um. Then again then again in New York cities like that. No, no man there's nothing nothing like that where like you literally get off the plane and some guy comes and grab your bags and wants to carry them for you like thirty feet and then he's going to demand money from you. Yeah. I mean it's just it's insane. UM. But Nepaul is not like that. Um. People are very honest, UM, very straightforward. You know. It's uh, it's just a lot of fun, great environment. Um. It was even when uh we were you have to drive from Picara out to kind of where the trailhead starts for Annapurna, and they're supposed to be that day a bunch of maoists protesting in the streets or rioting, um, depending on who you talk to. And they put me in the front seat of the car, um because they want if that happens, they want them to see the white guy, because they won't throw rocks at the car because you know, they they don't want to hurt the tourist industry. Even the maoists, I guess don't want to hurt the tourist industry. So um, yeah, very friendly, very cool with all that, UM. And it was just it was an amazing trip. I mean, we hugked up to I think four thousand feet where the base camp was, and it's just beautiful. And then from there Italy, which I believe Benny is still stuck. Yeah. Yeah, well from there we went back to Kathmando, spent a few days there, um, and then um back to Italy. Uh, we're in Milan, and then we're in Turinte for a few days. UM. They're amazing museums. In turn, there's the Egyptian Museum. There's there's some really cool stuff. But in the meantime, while all of this was happening, UM, Benny's um, her visa stuff got screwed up, like really screwed up. So you know she's working. It's it's like stupid immigration technicalities. Um. You know, the immigration system has been a mess for a long time. But you know she's dealing with the aftermath of that now and they think she's like a male order bride for now. You know, it's not even that. It's um, it's just like little technical details about like how you fill out the paperwork and where you go after we're in just stupid, stupid shit. But it ends up having a real repercussion. Luckily she's family there. I mean, if she didn't, that would kind of suck. Well, I mean then it would be a question of, well, okay, where did she come from? And yeah no, But I just mean, you know, she has a place to stay, family and all that, So it's not she'll be she'll be Okay, it's just a huge hassle. And you know, her home is here with me, and she's not able to you know, if she doesn't get her paperwork straightened out soon. Um, you know, I'll go see her next month. But I mean it could take a while for her to get straightened out. The worst case scenario crazy. Yeah. Yeah, so she's pretty upset by all of that. So yeah, it's a lot that's I'm sure I'll have to deal with for you. I mean, I just try to help and be supportive, you know, it's best I can. Yeah. You know a lot of people think that when you get married that your spouse just automatically gets like a green card or citizenship or something. It does. I thought I thought it doesn't work like that at all. Wow. Okay, interesting man. Well, since you've been away, we've had some really awesome people in the podcast. Boys Gracy, Pat McNamara, my friend Seawan, the Butcher from Serious Sex m who, by the way, I put it video up on Instagram, got to start the Slayer chant at a Slayer show on stage in front of like tens of thousands of screaming fans, which was pretty cool and it was fun just talking metal with those guys, and I ended up just doing stuff we don't normally do and we don't talk, and you know, I think most people enjoyed it. Other people were like, you know, what, do you guys not talk special ops anymore? But when you're here, we get into all of that. I mean, the next guest we have coming on is Sean Parnell, who's a former Navy seal, so I'm sure we'll get into all that with him. But the biggest news really since you've been away with the site is the transition from soft rep to news rap. As I says, I said, this show is still softwarep radio. We're still covering the same stuff that we normally do. Um but a lot of people are, you know, understandably confused with the name change and they're thinking, you know, did the psite get bought out or something like that. But it's still you know, the brainchild of you and Brandon Watt. Yeah, I mean, we just went through a rebranding process because you know, when we looked at it, we realized that we were already kind of exceeding our original mandate. I mean, when we started the website, what was two thousand and twelve, um, the goal was to be the number one news source for special operations news and information on the special operations world, and we kind of blew right through that goal um years ago. And you know, we cover all kinds of different issues. We've been covering all sorts of different issues for many years, um in the defense and foreign policy realm um. So we just kind of made a decision, like you know, the soft rep brand um, the name you know, Special Operations Report kind of like holds us back in that sense because that's not all we're doing anymore. So maybe the decision and change, uh just kind of expand a little bit or choose a name that better reflects what we've already been doing. Yeah, well that makes sense. Um. The biggest you know news that I know that you were not you don't care about it that much, and I kind of feel the same way as you, but that we're eates to what we do because of actually really because of Nate Boyer. We had on Colin Kaepernick getting signed to Nike, the outrage on kind of both sides of the aisle. But the thing that I thought, or at least that I'm happy about is I will freely admit I am riding the Nate Boyer bandwagon of him getting a ton of publicity because this So you know, I want more people to listen to our show. So I've tweeted out, you know, the show again, and the last show that I put was actually the best of which included Nate Boyer because I felt it was newsworthy for right now. And Nate Boyer retweeted it out and it got um retweeted by the founder and president of I A v A. And you know, a ton of people are looking at it, so that means more ears on the podcast. And by the way, Nate Boyer, from what I've seen, has been such a stand up guy in all ways. Um. I even saw that when we originally did the interview, there were the usual people out there of like I can't believe you went on Software up Radio and Nate Boyer saying like, look, I don't agree with every single thing ever reported by those guys. But part of having a discussion is that, you know, you got to talk to people that you might not agree with on everything. And he's just a super classy guy and you could tell from the way he handled the whole Colin Kaepernick situation, and you put that in comparison to honestly, the really immature way some other vets are handling it. I think I've I've even gotten tweets of people saying every Green Beret hates Nate Bowyer, you know, for saying that Colin Kaepernick shouldnel And it's like, really, I don't think you you, you know, represent the entire base of Green Berets. Yeah, I mean Nate is uh, you know, he's an adult, uh And I appreciate that about him. And you know, that was one of my favorite interviews too. I really enjoyed our conversation. I mean, who's saying that every Green Beret hates Nate Someone who tweeted me some probably nameless, faceless guy. But there are another I saw, like Tim Kennedy was out there saying that guys are pissed at Colin Kaepernick getting this. Oh yeah, I saw something about that too, and I was like, dude, you're an active duty Green Beret, Like, why do you even like, don't you have bigger ship to fucking worry about? Yeah, I mean, of course you can have a political opinion, and why not. Everyone's gonna have an opinion, and you know, standard water cooler talk, and just speaking for myself when I was in the army, I mean, I just wanted to put assholes out of business. And I didn't give a fuck if like liberals don't like the war or you know, like the French are protesting our war in Iraq. I didn't give a ship. I remember, really, I didn't give a fuck. So I don't know like what green berets are like getting all hot and bothered about some football dude who got a Nike sponsor sponsorship? I mean, who gives a ship? Yeah, I think everybody is allowed to have their opinion on it, of course. But I actually think people should really listen back to that Nate Boyer interview because it does put things into perspective. And I the one narrative that I don't think is fair if you listen to that interview is that Colin Kaepernick did this intentionally to piss off veterans. Yeah, because that was you know, it was done. You could agree with this or disagree with it, but it was done in protest of police brutality for black for black people mainly, and people want to conflate it. It's like, oh, he's disrespecting the troops or something like that. It's like, and he wouldn't have agreed to meet with Nate Boyer and also asked his suggestion of what to do if he had this disdain for the military. So I just I think, no matter what your opinion is, their narrative should be correct of what actually went down. Yeah, well, I mean, the troops are such a admired thing, one of the few institutions. It's like, why do we admired in the United States? So it's like one thing you really can't do without starting a pr disaster is disrespecting the troops. So it's like one of those things that like people use hyperbole or an exaggeration to say, like he's disrespecting the troops. It's kind of calling everyone you disagree with a nazi youthing. Yeah, and and um, it's just one of those issues that's become extremely polarized. Um. Personally, I think if it wasn't for Donald Trump, I don't know if he would have gotten this sponsorship. I kind of feel like this controversy would have gone away at some certain point, and he's brought it back up. And you know, there's a lot of people who who disagree with how the President handled this. I don't know. I mean, when I was a kid in high school, there was a kid in my class and my homeroom class who wouldn't stand for or no. He would stand, but he wouldn't recite the pledge of allegiance. And I can't remember like his real it was something like thing like he, you know, doesn't like the United States, or we're doing something wrong, or but he would stand to be respectful, but he wouldn't say it or put his hand over his heart. I don't remember that dude getting a Nike endorsement. I don't remember anybody giving I don't really remember anyone giving a flying fuck. Quite frankly, it was just like, okay, whatever, bro. So I don't understand why people like just absolutely lose their mind over this subject. It's like, listen, we what's America's population? Where three hundred million something million people right approximately? I believe three fifty million people. It's something something like that. Out of a population of three hundred and something million people, somebody's gonna do something you don't like. Like, I don't want to shock you here, but like, out of a population, I have a country that big. Every day there's gonna be somebody in America who's going to do something that you disagree with, something that you think is offensive, or something that's just downright stupid. I don't personally wanted to vote so much of my psychological, mental energy, emotional energy to every dumb person who does something dumb in America, like it's just not worth your time. Yeah, And I think it's just something that's easy to react to. I mean, I look at one of the more recent episodes that I did with Luke Ryan, and you know, Luke did all this coverage of what's going on in Burma and the travesty is happening, and the UN get involved. It's more than a travesty, it's a genocide. Yeah, absolutely, children being slaughtered, and you see way less reaction to that than a guy not staying Yeah, it's easier to get piste off about some dude that takes a knee at a dumb fucking football game than it is to deal with the fact that we're waging an immoral and unethical war in Afghanistan, the pulling soldiers there with no fucking strategy whatsoever. We had an n c O get killed in Afghanistan like a couple of days ago. We're sending guys over there year after year after year, making no fucking difference in that country whatsoever. We're just sending guys over there so that they fill up fucking body bags. And American doesn't give a flying funk about that, but they support the troops. Get the funk out of here with this bullshit. It's like fake patriotism. Go funk yourself. We're gonna send guys over there. They're gonna die for nothing. Because when I say unethical and immoral, I mean it is unethical and immoral to deploy soldiers to combat without any sort of endgame, without any sort of strategy. That is fucking wrong. It is so wrong. I don't even know what the what more to say about it. But we don't give a funk about that. We give a funk about some guy who takes a knee in a football game like Seriously, who do you really blame though for this being the ongoing thing? Because you have someone like General Maddis now running Secretary of Defense, and he's he's a guy who knows about the war in afghanist he does there. So you know, I would think that he would have a good strategy and and that this administration would try to have a departure from what we was seen during the Obama years and and the Bush here. Yeah, I mean I don't want to make excuses for any politician or any political appointee. Um, you know, Maddis being the latter. Um, But we haven't really I mean, he does take some of the blame because I mean we haven't heard him really advance any sort of strategy. I haven't heard any kind of exit strategy from him. Um. And I'm sure he's responding to instructions from the White House. Um. So he has to contend with that, and he has to contend with the type of White House administration that we have today. UM. So, I mean that's a good question. I why hasn't anyone stepped up to the plate and Trump, you know, is this uh, you know, he's this unconventional leader, right he doesn't really give a ship what people think of him. Why hasn't he just dropped the hammer on this and say, look, we're bringing the guys home, or say look we're going to change our strategy and this is this is the new strategy, this is what we're gonna do, whatever the case is. But just deploying guys year after year, you know, it's the definition of insanity, right what we're doing the same thing over and over thinking there's going to be a different result, but we all know there won't be a different result. On the topic of the Trump administration, I know that you just pretty much landed yesterday. So I don't know if you've gotten right. I mean, I I well to two days ago now, and I no, I have not fully caught up on America's melodrama. But have you seen the New York Times piece of the op ed I read. I read it yesterday. So did you hear about the whole um? I want to make sure I have it right here, the loadstar controversy, and there's like a conspiracy theory around it, right, Yeah, have you heard about that? I read something about so the word loadstar was used referencing John McCain in the in the piece from the anonymous source, and people are like, that's a pretty peculiar word to use, Like you don't hear that word every day. And then they look back on footage you're like dating back to two thousand one to now. Apparently Mike Pence likes to use the word load star and that's and it's used in this piece. And it's like, who uses the term load star besides this guy. There's also part of there's part of me too that like, here's this kind of stuff, and I mean, that's a wild conspiracy theory. But there's also a part of me that thinks this is like high level trolling. Yeah, but like like some somebody, um, I don't know, like some secretary that works in the sub basement of the White House wrote the op ed and like bled some information in like that, like oh this this, And then they start suspecting Mike Pence. And everyone's looking over their shoulder because what I mean, what if Trump has seen Pence had been like it wasn't you, was it? And because apparently on the same I bet he asked him about it, And on the same day that this op ed came out, Pence um departed from Trump on something, because Trump has been very hard on Jeff Sessions, and Pence on that same day was like, no, I support Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He's doing a great job. So it's interesting what a tough position that is if you're the vice president, Like do I I disagree with the president or do I throw our attorney general under the bus? Like what? And but I mean that's kind of what the op ed was referencing too. I mean it's like you're in this impossible situation with with Trump. I mean, the guy changes his mind at the drop of a hat. Um, he says things without thinking about him and the machines of the machinery, the gears of the bureaucracy has to respond to that. Um. But at the same time, what that op ed is describing is really like just short of treason. They're saying like, look, there's people here in this administration, in the inner circle that are actively undermining what the president tells us to do. And what is that. That's basically a coup It's basically a palace coup um And who was it? Um? John Kerry was in the in the press today and he's like, you know, what scares the hell out of me, because if this is true, what it means is we don't have a president because the president can say whatever he wants and the people around him in the National Security Council just do whatever the funk they want, you know, So, so and there, and those people in the NSC were not elected. Trump was one who was elected with his running mate Mike Pence. They were elected. Um, but these other people, these bureaucrats in the National Security Council, we're not elected. So it's like, who the funk is in charge? But I mean, then, do you do you think that op ed is is uh the real McCoy? Do you take that at face value? So all these different questions, what do you do you think it was a low level person trying to drum up some craziness or um no, no, I think it's it's somebody. It probably is somebody, um, fairly high up in the National Security Council who is just frustrated and angry and upset with the way things have gone down. Yeah, well we'll see I know that that that um you know, who knows. But on Twitter today they were showing the Tucker Carlson said he's like fairly certain who did it, and they've been reaching out, but a lot of people could say they're fairly certain if you did this, we'll see And it all seems kind of. It all coincides very nicely with a controversy around the Bob Woodward book that is coming out, which apparently is quite damning. Um is it all coordinated? I don't know, yeah, um, And the only other big piece of news I saw today. UM. I don't know if there's anything else you want to get into. Um, but in India major you know, just I would say gay rights, human rights victory. Um that basically gay sex was illegal in India. They're now striking that down. So the gay community in India, I know, it's very happy about it. And and worldwide, I mean, because that is that's a big deal, that's a big ruling. Yeah. Well you sense that India is um kind of at this like cultural and historic moment um, like a pivot point. I guess, um, you know, as they develop as a country, all the stuff that's come out about women's rights in India, Um, the courts kind of covering up rape, um and kind of re victimizing rape victims. Um. So hopefully they're slowly but surely straightening things out. UM. But I don't know enough about Indian politics to know I helped to comment on it. Yeah, I figured I would mention it though, because that is a big that's a big land mark change. Before we get to Jackie Gray, who's the former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. I was just wondering if you want to mention anything else about the change from news you know to news Rap, and also like what stopp you're currently working on for the site. Now that you're back, finally people are happy to have you back. So I mean, there's uh, not a whole lot is changing. I mean, like I said, news Rap is really uh a name that we went to just to reflect what we were already doing on the website. I think we are going to cover, um, some financial news. We already started to do that actually, which is kind of new and we we hadn't necessarily done that previously. There's a writer doing finance, right, there's two, there's two actually. UM SOFTWAREP Radio remains as is. We're gonna keep chugging along on this. UM. As far as what I'm working on, UM, I'm continuing to work on a pretty interesting store or that I've actually been working on for a long time, and I've probably mentioned it before here, but I'm hoping to wrap that up and then UM. I'm also revisiting an old soft Rep story because I'm putting the finishing touches on my memoir. So the last couple of days, I've been revisiting the story I wrought I wrote UM a few years back about UM a sexual predator in the hundred and first Airborne Division. UM, a squad leader who's victimizing the soldiers in his platoon. And so I'm going back through all of my old notes, the court martial transcripts. UM. It's uh, it's probably one of the more gnarly stories I've ever worked on, and it's the one that's stuck with me, probably quite frankly, UM a lot of it because one of my sources, UM died while I was writing that article. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah. He Uh. The family never disclosed UM exactly what happened, but it was heavily heavily speculated what happened from what I remember. Yeah, I mean I think he passed away UM because he was struggling um with the trauma of what had happened to him because the army had his chain of command had sold him out and betrayed him and many other soldiers as well. Um. It was a systematic failure within that unit. Um. But anyway, if you want to go read the article, I think it's called band of Brothers, sex crimes and cover up. UM. It's uh, it was. It was a tough one to work on, A tough one or right, but even tougher for the soldiers who went through that bullshit. UM, just completely nuts. But anyway, so I've been revisiting that topic um to write about and it's not that article, but you know, related to it. I would love to get the guy on the podcast who you know, went forward about what was going on at the v A, which I'm not going to say who it was. Technically he's been on the podcast for a few minutes and you know he would I'd love to get him to speak about it because I think it's it's something that needs to be I could ask um. You know a lot of times addressed. A lot of times victims don't want to go on the record because not because they're afraid to talk about it, um, But they don't want to be known as like I'm the guy who got my balls fondled. You know, no one wants to be the Actually believe he referenced on Facebook that like, hey, this trial is over. You know, I'm glad, Like I'm pretty sure he wrote a staff maybe, but that's a little bit different than going on a soft Wrap podcast and saying, you know, I got my dick fondled or I got my balls fondled by this asshole. Um. You know, when people have careers and they're trying to you know, create a life for themselves, they don't necessarily want to be the guy that. Yeah, now I get that. I understand that he's a great dude too. Yeah, no, he really is. Um. That was That was another that really horrific story that that asshole at v A, who's who's molesting all these male soldiers? Just like what the fuck? And And by the way, that's another angle why it should come out, because I do think, you know, there's rightfully a lot of attention on sexual abuse of women, but it is not just purely you know, it just it is mainly a problem that occurs with women, but there are people like this individual what we're talking. Yeah, yeah, well I UM, when I was writing that story about the the guy in the hundred and first, I asked the Pentagon for some statistics about UM male versus female victims of sexual assault, and UM, it's interesting because there are, it is, more women than men, UM, but women report much more often. UM. Men don't report as often. UM. I think because there's such a stigma. Socially, we understand and and we accept that a woman can be raped by a man. We know this is a real thing, it happens, UM. But when it comes to a man raping another man, now all these other questions get asked. You know, that their accusations that the person that the victim was a homosexual, that they were asking for it. I mean that's the way we may have treated women decades ago, Like if they came in and they were raped, Like, oh, you were asking for it, why didn't you say no? Why don't you just unfortunately, why didn't fight back? Yeah? Which is still you know, there's still those people out there. Why why were you wearing this? Actually this is kind of still it still happens. Yeah. I don't know if you saw the funeral for a wreath of Franklin with that kind of groping ariana Grande, Yeah, and people saying like, why didn't you do anything right there? And you know, you don't know in that position, You're on stage in front of tons of people. It's a weird scenario. But he clearly was being inappropriate. And while the story I wrote is that the um the soldiers were being abused in Afghanistan in combat and I mean I mean literally they were like going outside the wire doing combat patrols all the time. Their base was getting bombarded by mortar fire every day. So I mean, think about you have to prioritize, like do I deal with this sexual assault stuff or do I deal with fucking Johnny Gihad that's trying to kill me? You know. So that's just an additional kind of friction that exists. And it didn't help, of course that the perpetrator was actually a competent squad leader and like in combat he was everyone told me, even people who hated him were like he was fearless and he was competent. He made sure people did their job. He would run and run towards the sound of the guns. I mean, he did his job. Um It was when they got back to the base that things became completely inappropriate. Crazy man, and any other stories that you're a couple, um, a couple of different stories, UM, A couple of things that have been brewing for a long time that i'd like to I'd like to wrap up the most the most important stories are always the ones that take a long time. Yeah, and and are really hard to hammer down. Um. But you know, you just keep working on them and working on them until you have some kind of breakthrough. Um. But hopefully we'll have some other interesting stuff coming. Cool. All right, Well, we have Jackie Gray standing by, so we're gonna get right to him, former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. Let's dial him up. So joining us for the first time on SOFTWAP Radio is Jackie Gray. Jack is a former Army medic and executive director of the Red Circle Foundation. We haven't really talked Red Circle Foundation in a while, but there's been um some changes, and I know that you're you're pretty newly on board there, right, Jack, I am. I've been here with the Red Circle roughly nine months now. Very cool man. Well, before we get into like what's going on with Red Circle Foundation. I think it'd be interesting to get into your background UM as an army medic and joining the army and all that. Yeah, UM join the army right after college UM back in two thousand and eight, UM stayed enlisted. I decided to go and the enlisted route. I wanted to be a Mustang UM and then eventually commissioned, but I never ended up commissioning UM. I went through basic at Fort Knox UM w d A. I t down to Fort sam and then got to go to jump school and then got placed at JB lm UM and Tacoma, Washington, and then finished my active duty stent and went into the Oregon National Guard UM and then finished out the rest of my army career there. UM spent a total of about ten years. And yeah, that was pretty much my army in a nutshell. So then, how did you make the transition from the army into what you're doing now and into nonprofits and all that. UM. I kind of just fell into it, honestly. I has started working with my old high school and went in for helped out doing some volunteer work and helped out with them and kind of fell into you know, asking them if they had a mentorship program and then started UM their mentorship program and turned it into a nonprofit. And that's kind of how I kind of fell into the nonprofit realm. And then, UM, while that was going on, UM, a buddy of mine was in a conversation with the vice chairman for Red Circle and and they were they were looking for somebody to come in and help out and kind of refixed with the restructure that was going on, and he mentioned me, and I got in contact with them, and then I kind of just went from there. Can you talk a little bit then about what the Red Circle Foundation does, because I know you guys do a lot of awesome work. Yeah, I mean well, Red Circle Foundation obviously we started back in two thousand twelve. M. We do a lot of work with the special operation community and their families. UM. We do a lot of emergency gap funding, UH, financial assistance, UM helping with medical equipment and devices that Try Care and other insurance companies cannot don't cover, and what the families can afford themselves. UM. We've been doing a lot of academic and enrichment scholarships for their kids and their families. UM, helping out sending the kids to camps, getting them, you know, active in the community as well, and that's pretty much very cool. Man. Did you have any UM, because I know Brandon was telling me you might have some stories in particular of some families you guys have been helping out. I do. I have a few. UM. Most recently, I mean we helped out uh SF Guy UM. He got hurt overseas in Afghanistan, was shot actually in the head with an RPGA, had his right side of his skull removed UM by the shrapnel and had several surgeries to repair it. UM he had issues with the vestible system and it's purtigo, which caused issues with him laying on his back and he wasn't able to sleep, so tried care. I was trying to do whatever they can and UM couldn't afford to buy him a bed, so they gave us a call and we bought him a bed to help him sleep that was prescribed by the doctor. UM. Another story we worked just recently had an assack Guy UM a p J. UM got injured during training. UM had some surgeries, got hooked on the pain meds, got addicted and went into rehab, went through all the VA's rehab as well and wasn't working out, got into a Christian found funded rehabilitation center and has been going through that, and we actually helped out with his family with helping him go through the rehab with them. Um. And then, by the way, that's like such an unfortunate one that you hear about so much, and it's just this the cycle that happens, I think with veterans of getting prescribed um, you know, to legitimate prescriptions and then getting hooked on That happens all the time. Yeah, Opium opiates are very very tough and very dangerous. I mean, you know, obviously they're the number one addictive drug right now going on. So that's the issue with a lot of these guys when they go through these procedures and stuff. So it sucks and it's really sad to hear, but we're doing where we can to try to help them and you know, get them back on their feet. So absolutely, yeah. I had some other stories. I got actually one of the testimonials from a soldier who we recently helped. He was a Seventh Group guy. UM, he kind of sent us a letter and kind of just wanted me to read it out to you guys, if you guys don't mind me. UM, his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. UM. He was still enlisted, was a senior listed at the academy at so Calm. UM. She had an incredibly rare disease. It was very aggressive and that typically was a very and they had a poor diagnosis and prognosis, and they didn't give him a short lifespan. UM, but the family dug in and they started the fight. UM try Care, which is great, was only able to cover us so much. They gave us a call and they were constantly driving back up fourth hours away from their home to the hospital where the cancer treatment was getting taken care of. UM, and it just started hindering. His wallet contact is so Calm, and so Calm coordinated them with us and since then we've been helping him out, working with him to being able to transfer his wife and him and his also his daughter. All they all got diagnosed with cancer, all but roughly within the last couple of years. Is that like environmentally induced, like something on the base could be Who knows, UM, I don't. I wouldn't say that could have been genetics to UH with their financial struggles, I mean I mean when you go from one to the next and to the next, and you know, it starts to hit that wallet really hard, especially you know when being in the military and our budgets and our our wallets aren't that big in the first place. So that's insane. So we're helping them getting their find you know, family back on their feet, helping them, uh, continue their fight, and making sure the trial drugs work for his wife and you know, continue on and supporting them. And so he sent me this and just wanted me to kind of just tell you guys what we do for him, and this is what it looks like from coming from a soldier's perspective. Yeah, that's insane. I'm glad you guys are out there doing that though. It is great. I mean we're so small and which which I feel is kind of one of our forts because it allows us to kind of just get more personal with the soldiers and family, is that we're helping out as the bigger nonprofits is kind of more of like a runthrough, I feel, where you just kind of pushed through with paperwork and onto the next kind of thing. Yeah. Man, um, So from what we were talking about when I just spoke to you for the first time the other day. Um, you were saying there's also some events coming up that that you'll be holding soon. Yeah, definitely. Uh, well, I can kind of go briefly. This year. Since I'm in the Portland, Oregon area, I've been trying to do a lot of more local outreach as well as nationwide. Um. Are there a lot of vets in Portland or Oregon in general? Yeah? Actually Oregon. From last statistics that I've read, there are more people in the military from Oregon than any other state according to this statistic. But I don't know how accurate that might be. But um, there's no active basis in Oregon. There's only garden Reserve bases here. Um, but very pro military state. But they don't know out about Red Circle. So I've been trying to do a lot of REA reaching out here. UM. Got to do work with not another nonprofit that works with veterans and taking them out hunting and fishing. We helped out at their benefit. Um is that? Um, because I I've heard of a few charities like that. You do you know what it was? It was the Falling Outdoors. Okay, that's not the one I was thinking of. But yeah, there seems to be a few UM charities that do that, which is really cool. Yeah, and these guys are a great bunch of guys. UM. Actually, the treasuries are currently still active. UM. He was a buddy of mine and he was the one who brought me on and he was like, hey, you should come out to the benefit. There'll be some SF guys, some ranger dudes out here if you want to get them involved, here's the way to do it. We went out to their benefit. Was great. UM. That was back in June. I did the Portland Vancouver the Reverend Warriors Silky March I k I marched that in representation for Red Circle. UM. We did a lot of work with the minor league baseball team this last this last summer UM, they had their Salute Service Week. We were out there with the booth and then got to go on and do some interviews UM. And then coming up we have the Warrior Care Coalition Conference in Tampa in November, as well as another TFO banquet which is their national banquet, which will be in October. UM. And then I'll be up in New York in December with your guys as the Hurricanes benefit and then um, I did some work. Oh, I did some work recently with the Seahawks. Seattle Seahawks went up to their training camp and did some i'll reach with them and kind of got to let those guys know kind of what we do and who we are as well. So yeah, a lot of great things going on. We got Heroes Holiday coming up, which is where we sponsor a couple of families Special Operation families who are in need and we take care of their you know, their full holiday from Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, from everything from the food to the decorations, the tree, the presidence and everything like that. So very cool man, Yes, staying busy. So um if people want to check out Red Circle Foundation, it's Red Circle Foundation dot org. Um good having you on, man, I Like I said, um, it was the first time I spoke to you just the other day and Brandon was like, you gotta have Jackie on. So I I appreciate you coming on with us and when there's like something big on the horise and just hait me up any time. Man, definitely. But I appreciate you guys having me on, and I appreciate you guys taking the time to you know, here about us again and you know put Red Circle back and you guys limeline. Yeah, of course anytime. Great having Jackie Gray on the podcast for the first time. UM, as I said to him, when there's like more specific stuff on the horizon, he'd be great to have back on. But yeah, be sure to check out the website and donate and help these guys in need. It's Red Circle Foundation dot com. And be sure to check out the Create Club. The exclusive collaboration watch we did with NFW Watches is one of the next big items coming soon in the premium Create Zack. We're just talking to Scott Whitner and I know that the first ship and of those arrived at the warehouse, so they'll be going out soon. If you're a premium tier member, um, because we do have different tiers of membership depending on how prepared you want to be, and gift options are available as well. UM. Scott and the guys are currently working on bringing you custom products everything from sunglass cases to E d C bags and other manly products. It's a club fore men by men. You can check that all out at Create Club dot Us. Once again, that's Create Club dot Us. And for your dog owners. Check this out. You're gonna love this. We've just partnered with Kuna. They have a team of trained canine handlers picking out a box for your dog each month of healthy treats and training aids. It's custom built for your dog's size and your dog's age as well. The products are US sourced, all natural, and they not only promote a healthy diet, but also promote being active with your dog. So whether we're talking a pit bull or a little chihuahua, this is just what you're looking for. You can see all that at Kuna dot Dog. That's Kuna dot Dog. It's efficient for you. Your dog is going to appreciate it as well, of course, and that's spelled SeeU and A dot d o G. Check it out. Also, I gotta remind you guys who are listening. For a limited time you can receive a fifty percent discounted membership to the spec Ops Channel. That's our channel that offers the most exclusive shows, documentaries and interviews covering the most exciting military content today. The spec Ops channel premier show Training Cell follows former Special Operations Forces as they participate in the most advanced training the country. Everything from shooting schools, defensive driving, jungle and winter warfare, climbing, and much more. Again, you can watch this content by subscribing to the spec Ops channel and that's at spec ops channel dot com and take advantage of a limited time offer of fifty off your membership that's only four a month, and check out the app. Chris did a great job developing that um with that man As you were mentioning earlier in the intro, your book coming out very soon. I'm looking forward to that. Well not very soon, y okay, Well, so wait, what's the actual release date? Uh? According to Amazon Apri, is that what it's at. I mean, people are pre ordering for to come out of ap I'll ask my publisher and find out. You think that might get pushed back a little, you're saying, I don't know. Cool, all right, Well, um, from what you were saying though, it sounds like the book is just about done. Yeah, the manuscript is just about done. Um and uh, and then we'll do the final selection I guess on the picture inserts, um and all. That's all the associated stuff. And I don't know. I'm excited to get it out there. There's a lot of information in the book. There's just a lot of stuff. I mean all the stuff I did in the military, and then all this stuff, A lot of this stuff I did as a journalist and traveling Syria, traveling to Iraq, even some stuff going to the Philippines, UM, South Korea and the d m Z in there. I can't remember if I wrote about that or not. Um, so all kinds of different ship. It's a it's gonna be there's a lot of material in there, and uh, it's definitely going to be different than other military memoirs. I'm excited for a man. As we often say, pre orders matter, so go on Amazon pre order. Um. You know what, I've noticed the emails slowing down because I think Jack has not been here. So I could answer radio questions all day, but when it comes to specifics of special operations military stuff, you guys know, I don't have any answer to a lot of that. So email us again if you have those type of questions that Jack could answer. It's soft Rep dot radio at soft rep dot com. Soft Rep dot Radio at soft rep dot com. Uh, next episode is actually gonna fall on UM. I believe it would normally fall on nine twelve, but I'm gonna try to Yeah, I'm gonna try to get it up on nine eleven and revisit Brandon Webin I visiting the UM eleven Memorial exhibit, which was great, Um, you know, it was a touching experience, and also hearing the words from the victims families and just getting a tour of of all of that architecture that was there from the towers. We went with a guy who was a firefighter at the time who experienced all of it. Lost guys. Um, So if you never heard that, we're gonna re air that, and then the next guest will be Sean Parnell, former Navy seal. So it'll be a good week of shows. Um, and good to have you back, man. I've been holding it down myself, which has gotten a little boring after Well, you did a good job though, I mean I saw some of the stuff you were doing. I mean you had some super cool guests on. Yeah, yeah, Hoist Gracy C. J. Woodrooff was cool, as I said, Pat mcnamarish on The Butcher, and then you know, just writers that we've regularly had on like Luke Ryan, Alex Hollings and um, Kurt Schroeder all those guys. Yeah, I'm glad to be home, though, I mean, had an awesome summer, can't complain. Yeah that is, that's a pretty epic summer and your daughter is probably gonna remember forever. Oh yeah, I mean she had a great time. I mean, I mean she basically had two vacations because she she went with me to Switzerland and Sardinia and then she went with her mom to the Mall dives. So yeah, I think she's she's well traveled. She's back in school today, Yeah, today, the first day yesterday was cool. She's probably like I don't want to go back. That's how I always was. But yeah, she starts complaining, and she starts complaining because you know, they do a lot of work now in school. Yeah. At a certain point though, it's also like, you know, you want to see your friends and all that type of thing, and yeah, not hanging out with these old people. So all right, Well, thanks for checking out as always, guys, UM, please check out that next show. Um, if you've never visited the A nine and nine eleven Moral Exhibit, you really should. But I think this will give you like an inside perspective of what's there. I really enjoyed visiting there. Um, you know, I'll talk about it on the show, but I remember we've talked about where we were when the Trade Center, Um, you know, when when the plane hit the Trade Center. But I was here on Long Island, and I remember seeing the smoke from the towers and stuff, and I remember losing family friends that day and stuff. So I think it's something that every American really should visit if you're here in New York. Um, and you'll like the show. I think if if that was a day that either you know, it's so from the age range of this show, Like there's people who experienced it the same way that we did, and then there's these younger kids who were like seventeen eighteen the lists and who really did experience it. I mean, it's it's hard to believe how long it's been. So the war has just been going on as long as every Yep. Yeah crazy. All right, Well, um, have a great weekend, guys, we're out. You've been listening to Self Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio.
