Mark Turner - Inside The Russia/Ukraine War | SRS #021

Hey everybody we got another solid human being  coming on the show mark turner former recon. marine who has been helping the ukrainians  learn how to fight on the ground in ukraine. hey there's a lot of stuff going on in the  world these days that you can't control. one of the only things you can control is spend  time with your family out here in the wilderness. it's really the only thing that matters  but anyways i hope you guys like the show.

if you don't mind hit that subscribe button and  hit the bill the bell for all notifications and uh. love you guys right bud that's right  all right so when you're in the ukraine. and you're in a church cathedral steeple trying  to look at sniper positions we're not going to.

war we're just helping here and if the war comes  here that's fine but the war's not here so some of. them still just don't get it it's like they're in  your country and you you still think it's surreal. is not coming here it's surreal though isn't  it imagine if in new york the russians invaded. it's an unbelievable thing if you think  of 9 11 when that happened you're sitting.

watching it it's real but it's unbelievable  our instructions were basically find this guy. or find the priest it's not how we work  i told zach right away i said look man. we would never run something like this it's okay  it's okay we'll be all right we'll be all right. these two guys come out with a car they're almost  tripping over their own feet ak's drawn on us. so.

hey guys let me tell you about this subscription  service that i've been working real hard on. called vigilance elite patreon basically  on patreon we have it broken up into three. different tiers we've got tier one tier two and  tier three let's dive in our tier one patrons get. all the behind the scenes footage of the sean ryan  show that could include behind the scenes photos.

that could be side conversations that we have in  between breaks that could be specific questions. that our patrons give us for the guests  on the sean ryan show and a ton of bonus. content that doesn't really fit into any specific  category for our tier two patrons they get access. to our tactical training library which consists  of well over a hundred videos we've broken those. videos up into separate categories and  those categories are rifle fundamentals.

pistol fundamentals drills tactics driving  gear and weapon setups and everybody's favorite. mindset also on tier 2 you will get a live update  from me on the 1st and the 15th of every month. where we talk about the upcoming guests on the  sean ryan show plus all the benefits of tier 1.

our top tier which is tier three gets full access  to all the other tiers plus they get full access. to me where we do video teleconferencing  vtc once a month we discuss anything from. tactics to current events to who's coming on the  show i take suggestions and it's very interactive. no matter what tier you choose the support  is greatly appreciated and it is the only.

thing that makes this show drive on so thank  you for all the support see you on patreon. mark turner welcome to the show brother thanks  for having me man you are like my favorite type of. guest to interview on here you're really quiet not  a whole lot of people know who you are what you've. been up to and we got a message on sean ryan show  uh instagram account saying that you had been.

in ukraine since the war started went on 18  hours notice and you were coming back to kind. of recruit some guys to go back over with  you and so i cleared my schedule i wanted. to get you here as fast as possible so here we  are six days later and uh you're in the studio. i'm really excited for this yeah thanks for uh you  know helping us get the word out and we're trying. to do a lot there and you know you've been great  with your time and your effort to to help us get.

the word out so thanks well you're welcome it's  it's gonna be a real pleasure interviewing you. so i just want to knock out some of the business  stuff right up front so the reason you're coming. here is you're not looking for any credit  or anything like that you came here because. you are training ukrainians and basically more  fighting and so you came back to hopefully recruit. special operations types to go back over with you  and train these guys and you're also looking for.

equipment so any of these tactical gear companies  flashlights magazines whatever they've got that. they can that they can donate to you guys uh  for your mission over there your welcoming. so where before we start where can everybody  find you uh my instagram mark turner bjj um. my email is my personal email is good as well i  know i might end up regret putting that out there.

but mark turner bjj gmail and then the overwatch  foundation is our non-profit um you can that's uh. the overwatch foundation on instagram as well and  all the links will be on there for the website and. all that kind of stuff as well perfect i'll  link everything below so if you are looking. to get over there and help mark  train some of the ukrainians. and uh get these guys spun up for the  russian threat that they're dealing with. there's your guy he got he has all the logistics  figured out and um and you're also going on mike.

ritland's podcast who gives a phenomenal interview  i don't know when that's aaron but i'm going to. link that his podcast below to drive traffic  because there's no doubt in my mind whatever i. don't cover mike will definitely pick up the ball  so uh great interviewing our great interviewer. mike's consolidated but um so how i want  to kind of go through this interview is.

nobody really knows what's going on other than  mainstream media and as time goes on more and. more people are realizing mainstream media is not  putting facts out there's an agenda behind it and. a lot of people aren't watching it anymore and so  i haven't given any opinions anything on ukraine. russia conflict because i don't trust anything  that the the mainstream's put now in fact.

they've already been caught in  lies one of them was the was the. fighter pilot that wound up being  a video game fantasy that they. put out there as fact and then there was another  one too i can't remember what it was but um which. you're unaware of because you said you don't even  know what's going on on mainstream so i want to. get your perspective of what's actually going  on on the ground over there what some of these. guys are saying what you're what you're seeing on  the ground i know you talked to some high ranking.

diplomats and government officials that are giving  you intelligence about what's happening over there. and uh so i want to kind of intertwine that  with what you're actually doing over there. and then at the end uh we'll talk about what  you're doing with your non-profit okay but uh. always give everybody a gift oh man did i open it  now or what go ahead open it up goodness gracious.

maureen you're giving me a box to open here this  is uh chicken you can rip it don't be bashful. oh my goodness i don't even  know if i should show these. these are like worth more than gold at the moment  aren't they we just got those back and stuff oh. okay yeah so this is the first of the new batch  that's the first of the new batch wow fantastic i. don't know if they'll be on the website yet but uh  but they're back there's how many bikes here four.

bags these are gonna make it to the airport we'll  give you some more he's gonna make it back home. i'm gonna destroy these thank you very much that's  fantastic good stuff thank you yeah you're welcome. so let's dive right into it okay so just day  one where were you when you got this call. yeah so um a little bit of background on me  i was in the marine corps 10 years started in.

the infantry finished off in the reconnaissance  community um been out longer than i was in at. this point um you know combat veteran all that  good stuff uh i have a jiu jitsu academy now. in the chicago area and we have a huge  kind of veteran community in the academy. some special operations guys some veterans a lot  of police first responders that kind of stuff so.

we have a good community there um of guys one  of the guys in the academy is a ukrainian guy. no military experience or anything actually brand  new american his name's yuri you know i'll talk. about yuri quite a bit um brand new american  naturalized citizen um i'm a naturalized citizen. as well i'm from scotland obviously and um and  we're good friends and leading up to the war.

obviously there was a lot of stuff on tv and  you know chatting back and forth checking. in with a friend how's everything going back  home and you know kind of going back and forth. when the war kicked off he like obviously  completely changed right i mean that's. real now i mean it was real before but now  there's russians in his country kind of thing. so and i could see it was affecting him and  i said it was at the weekend i said look.

let's go to the range let's shoot a little bit  you know he's he's he's kind of getting into. his rights as an american got his concealed carry  he's learning how to shoot this kind of stuff so. we'll go at the range a couple of hours that will  get your mind off the tv and out of your phone. right your head a little bit so we're doing our  thing at the range as you do and he's like i think. i'm just going to go home and check on my family  and i said well yuri you can't you can't go back.

there right now you know i mean obviously a lot of  uncertainty it's war you don't have any experience. say i really want to go back i said well  let me see if i can get some guys together. and we'll do you know we have this non-profit  we do a lot of disaster relief um like kind of. fast action type stuff with hurricanes these  kind of things um i said let me see if i can. get some guys together and we'll do some kind of  humanitarian thing there and we'll go with you. make sure everything's okay um not to like protect  them really but kind of right to go with them.

and uh and he's like he was kind of blown  away by that and i mean we move fast. why we're so good at what we do is because we're  quick quick to act when these things happen right. so yeah so 18 hours later we were uh pretty much  on the way to ukraine from that conversation. to getting on the birth i mean it was that fast  and you have you're married married with two.

kids yeah three kids one's 18 years but yeah  two little ones four year old and three month. old and you're over there with 18 hours notice  yeah how long was this going on how long had. the war started before you guys got in country  i think three days where did you fly into um. a neighboring country will say i don't really  want to say because of kind of what we're doing. there and what we're doing in that neighboring  country as well but yeah neighboring country.

drove to the uh to the border so it was all  in all with all the travel and the connections. it was close to like 17 18 hours oh wow uh airport  plane and then seven hours drive uh which ended up. being nine hours drive because we made a few  stops and and gathered humanitarian supplies. on the way so a nine hour drive to the border  throughout the interview if there's anything. that i understand there's a lot of sensitive  uh material that you don't want to reveal so.

just say you know as much as you can and  if you can't go any farther than just say. yeah no i mean look i'm i'm here to be as as open  and transparent as possible there is obviously. for opsec stuff names and and some places i won't  say just because we're still actively doing things. there and we are planning on going back and  obviously you have a massive audience so um. but yeah i'll be as transparent with as much as i  can what type of equipment did you take with you.

um we went pretty slick right um we didn't take  any weapons with us we had connections to that. kind of stuff in country if and when we needed  it um we didn't even check any bags it was um. yeah didn't check any bags uh partly because  i mean look we're we had a lot going on we're. doing stuff kind of quick hard and fast and i mean  imagine getting stuck trying to do something like.

that because an airline lost your back right  so um yeah as much as you could pack into a. carry-on bag uh is what we had we also knew  when we stopped and got a bunch of supplies. in the neighboring country we carried all that  stuff across the border we walked across the. border you walked across the border with stuff in  hand yeah was anybody there to receive you yeah so. what happened when we arrived in the neighboring  country we started building our network there.

before we even left um people always say  how can you do that stuff so fast and. i say well you know we had 19 hours of kind  of airport flight time to prepare stuff and to. coordinate and then we had that drive so like you  can get a lot done if we were taking all that time. and planned it here stateside you're missing a day  or two days right so it's kind of punch out and go. and work the plan as you're going so we had  that network to get us from the airport in the.

neighboring country to the border and it was very  funny because yuri obviously speaks ukrainian but. we don't have anybody that spoke the language in  this neighboring country and we tried to set it up. to where the guy who would come and pick us up it  was kind of like a bad game of telephone right i'm. coordinating with you but you're coordinating  with a guy who's going to come meet us. so we're planning it and we say look we have this  long drive we're arriving kind of in the late.

afternoon early evening and now we have to do that  drive to the border it would be fantastic if this. guy could fill the car up with as much medical  supply because that's what we were doing we took. basically medical supplies that you would put  in an ifak like combat travel stuff uh stuff. for packing wounds uh tourniquets we ended up  not being able to get tourniquets in country i. brought a bunch of tourniquets and then we sourced  a bunch more but that kind of stuff uh compression.

bandages gauze uh you know the same kind of stuff  that you'd imagine is in a knife ah said give the. guy a list it'd be good if he had the car packed  full of that stuff so we just get in the car and. we can go to the border so he comes up and the  guy is so funny we called him rambo because uh. he showed up he had like the olive drab gear on  and the hat like you know standing there at the.

airport it's like that's that's our guy for  sure like he stuck out he thought he's james. bond or something right yeah coming to pick  these guys up so he shows us he's all excited. to show us what he has in the trunk and it's like  everything we had on the list he got like one of. so i was like oh my you know  heart of gold fantastic thank you. we need more like we need this car bursting with  stuff so we proceeded to stop at every pharmacy.

that we could find and it's two american marines  and yuri go into these pharmacies and we're like. we just need to gut your pharmacy of all the  stuff and you know imagine you're in a eastern. european country one two people working  in these pharmacies and we come rolling in. and just got the whole store they're thinking  like what in the world is going on here you know. once they kind of caught on to what we were doing  they were incredibly helpful and just started.

you know giving us more than we were even asking  for um so we did that five times we basically kept. stopping until it was time for pharmacies  to close okay and we filled up the car and. you know continued on to the board there got  there really late ran into uh we're about a. mile or two away from the border and ran into  federal police of that neighboring country. told them who we were what we  were doing and they were like.

look the borders kind of dodgy at night and all  this kind of stuff we you probably don't want. to go right now really late at night i think it  was like two in the morning three in the morning. you want to go right now and we're not gonna  let you go right now um in the in the morning. you guys can go ahead and punch over so  we just kind of hung out on the side of. the road snowing you know cold middle of the  night there was all kinds of other cars there.

you can imagine there's a lot of  ukrainian people trying to get out. what how many people did you estimate was  that was the border flooded with people like. coming coming out there was a lot of people um at  the time we crossed we were the only ones crossing. in yeah there were some people on the outside like  i said maybe a mile away staged kind of waiting. for people to to come out um you know but a board  there you've had some experience with borders.

borders can be a dodgy place you know kind of  reminds me a little bit of the cantina from star. wars yeah you know it's just you have all kinds of  people there and and you don't really know so yeah. we had kind of a watch and keeping an eye out and  all that we had to sit there for a couple hours. kept checking with the police hey let us go now  let us go now and then then they'll let us cross. yeah did you know where you were going before you  crossed the border yeah so we had some contacts.

on the other side obviously because of yuri he  actually we couldn't have done what we did to. the level that we did it without him because it's  kind of like the hometown guy bringing us there a. ton of doors opened you know like if you yourself  was like hey i'm just going to go to ukraine and. try and save the world kind of thing it would  be difficult it would be really difficult so. we had some guys pick us up on the other side  and it's funny like i said we walked across the.

board there all that stuff that we packed the car  with in hand in boxes and in bags and we're just. walking and uh we're crossing over and there's  this little shack like a little guard shack. looks abandoned or whatever and uh  we started walking guys like hey. ukrainian guy like what's this guy doing let  me see your papers all this kind of stuff. middle of nowhere checks our papers  we're like all right now what and he's. so funny he's like all right now you just go to  ukraine all right i get i guess we're here right.

so two guys come in a van to pick us up and  it was kind of like they pull up the van door. opens get in kind of deal we don't know these  guys yuri knows of these guys turns out one of. the guys is named sasha just an incredible  human right and patriot for his country. um he has this kind of underground network of  it's it's kind of like a humanitarian group.

they do a lot of humanitarian stuff for people  for the army getting stuff out to the front um. and getting helping with refugees kind of  getting them to that area and helping them. get to the borders people that are leaving  some of the the areas where the fronts are um. so he came picked us up and you know you get into  the van with these with these guys i don't speak. ukrainian just kind of like all right let's go for  doing this you know i didn't know how influential. and how incredible he was at that time um but  yeah having a contact like that was was great.

from there we are we went to the area kind of  like our ao that we were operating out of into his. and i can mention the place now because they've  since moved in the last few days to a different. location but it was a window and door sales place  like patio doors and windows and they basically. just turned it into this incredible network like  underground network to support the war effort and.

you know we we get to the town we  went there we went to our safe house. kind of got settled in and you know  started working the plan from there. wow what kind of when you did you see kind of  who was leaving the border was there was it a. lot of women and children was there a lot of  fighting age males leaving yeah there's not a. lot of fighting age males um it was mainly women  and children the males there are required to stay.

i think there are some exceptions i think it's  from 18 or 16 to 60 is the age that has to remain. in country they all are joining the army right  now um many are just doing it you know they they. don't have to be told they want to do it the same  way if something happened here you and i wouldn't. just sit by right i mean it's their patriotism's  incredible um but yeah that on one side to me.

that's that's pretty incredible heroic and  patriotic but the families are being split. right yeah because the women and children are are  getting out and even the women and children that. are staying in some of the the areas where the  front is not like where the actual fight is not. they're still set there's family still broken  because the men are all going to the front. what how are they are they being put  in camps where are they staying where. the refugees yeah the refugees um some of them are  moving so let's say that the fronts are more kind.

of out east let's say so as they move west some  of them are going to towns that are not affected. heavily by the fighting yet um or that aren't  as bad of a threat is where they're coming from. some of them that are actually going to the  borders and this is kind of the problem they're. having now and and what i've heard about how we're  looking at it as americans so let's bring them to.

america let's bring them to other parts of europe  and help them that's fantastic idea but these. people don't want that they want to stay close to  the board there so that when this clears up they. go back to their life right i mean i'm sure some  of them would love to come here but many of them. again their husbands their fathers their brothers  are at the front yeah so they don't want to come. to tennessee or chicago right now they want to  be close to home so it puts a lot of stress on.

those border areas of those neighboring countries  because it's not just processing them and moving. them on they don't want that so you have to in  my opinion you have to kind of help facilitate. that but it puts a lot of pressure on those border  areas yeah so they want to be as close as possible. yeah i mean i i i probably would too right  yeah you know but we don't think like that. really we think of it as hey let's get them out  of there and start them over yeah you know give.

them a new life kind of thing and that's not  really what many of them are interested in. interesting that's a glad we just went into  that so you're at the underground facility. and what's and so what starts to develop  there who are you meeting yeah it was uh. so to set the cena that like i said it's this  kind of underground war effort thing kind of. reminds you of like a world war ii movie when you  see that kind of stuff going on the whole town is.

involved right you have women and children  making caminet in the gymnasiums you have. everybody helping out anybody that has any kind  of you know there was a steel guy there talking. to us about making plates and and seamstresses  helping out with this that or the next thing. uh doctors nurses everybody's helping out and uh. we go in there and just start okay how can  we help we do our med drop with the supplies.

we're explaining to them like look explain to  them about like an eye fat kit here's what you. need in there here's a box of stuff you need to  make these kits up here's what goes into that. and we just start making connections looking  for stuff to do looking for ways we can help. and somebody mentions about the the  military uh there's a military base in town. and what happened was when the war  kicked off they had about 200 000 people.

join the armed forces in a weekend wow  so you can imagine the strain i mean. if 200 000 people enlisted in our military on a  weekend we'd struggle to process all that right. so they had a lot of guys who had no experience no  training anything like that no uniforms um no gear. and we had heard the military had some strain they  set up these territorial defense units i think.

most of the people listening to this will  have heard like the foreign legion thing. that ukraine started right where anybody can come  over and we'll arm them and all this kind of stuff. we weren't in contact with any of that  um but these territorial defense units. originally were set up to protect local areas so  like your town would have a territorial defense. unit made up of people from that town and they  would protect the area turns out with everything.

going on these territorial defense units are also  getting sent to the front no training no gear some. of them haven't even touched the rifle till they  get there how far in are you in the ukraine um. from the from the board there yeah we'll say  a couple hours let's see can you name the town. no okay no just because there's so and the  reason why is what russia is doing right. now to these western areas they know they're  getting a lot of help from the western areas.

of ukraine they know they're getting help from the  neighboring countries so they're sending saboteurs. out to those areas to mark targets right i  mean there's already been some issues where. some of the areas in the west there's there was  that location kind of close to um the polish. border that just got bombed yeah because they  found out they were training these kind of units. there and you know so i don't want to say the area  for understanding for those kind of reasons um.

for those people's protection and then for mine  as well because i'm probably going back here. um and if they know that americans are  there obviously that's bad as well so. um we found out this this army base and basically  just went knocked on the door and told the guard. like hey here's who we are who's in charge  get us in front of somebody who's in charge. so we end up in front of this colonel  and uh you know he was a tank commander.

now he's dealing with all these infantry type  guys the major that was working under him. was uh in the army a long time ago when he  was done in the army he was a uh salesman for. like aquatic type stuff like aquariums fish  and aquariums yeah all of a sudden ominous. dominus you're a major in the army now right  running these guys and he was an artillery guy.

so we go in and we told the colonel we said look  we're going to be here for the next x amount of. days here's who we are if you need any help let us  know we were not going there to train ukrainians. we weren't going there to fight you know we  were going there to take yuri home and this. is kind of part of how everything spiraled and  we you know got more involved and more involved. um he was very kind of skeptical of us at  first i mean i don't think he thought we.

were up to anything um like he didn't think we  were russian saboteurs or anything but he just. kind of was who are you and why are you doing  this you know um and he said i'll tell you what. we're doing defensive positions around the town  and around the base kind of we know what we're. doing but we'd like some advice on what we've done  and if you have any advice on improvements we can.

make let's talk about it so he starts showing  us around the base we like this we would add. that we'd get rid of this kind of giving him our  opinion on it like a site survey and uh he says. after that he's like okay so he starts showing us  surrounding buildings in the area that they have. kind of taken over and set up defensive positions  in and i was kind of impressed with that because. you couldn't tell i mean i hadn't been in the  town that long but you couldn't tell there were.

they were doing this stuff in these  adjacent buildings and other buildings. and then um some other places uh like i with the  video we had with the clock tower and that kind. of stuff this is the one where you're and uh  setting up a sniper hut yeah and like a like a. you know op kind of thing for for  them so when you're in the ukraine. and you're in a church cathedral steeple  trying to look at sniper positions and.

there's pigeon shaped everywhere this is  part of the deal the top of this tower. there's a pain just getting up here. all right i'll be back so we're on top of the. observation post sniper position for the.

ukrainian army in this town  and they're getting set up for. a potential attack so we're helping them scout  some positions and uh hey zach come over here. and uh take a look at some good vantage points. and uh you know we're looking at that stuff  giving him a good site survey helping him.

out changing some stuff he's like okay  kind of building trust with him then. and again in the beginning he was very short with  us very wasn't being rude wasn't being dismissive. but you could tell he didn't really know and  then by the end of doing all that survey he's. like okay i think these guys can help he goes  would you guys be interested in training the men. yeah right we'll help you um start asking  him about experience this kind of thing.

and he kind of was like almost  embarrassed and being like look. no experience they don't know what they're doing  we don't really know how to train them it's not. our thing but we have these guys and if you can  help so okay come back tomorrow and we'll start. training the main right so he connected us with  the major and uh and then that was that so we. did a lot of our training in the mornings how well  equipped are they what are they they're not i mean.

we went there on the first day and it was it was  like a movie right we show up two hard charging. marines ready to train these guys and you had  fathers and sons you had old men you had uh. people who never would have joined the military  never would have set up to fight i mean they're. there with adidas track suits on and gym shoes  and it's three inches of snow and 25 degrees and. you know because they just didn't have enough  uniforms and our thing was like okay what these.

guys are doing is pretty incredible like i said  you and i would do it but it's still incredible. it's incredible that you have to do that yeah join  join the military because people are invading your. country so but then imagine you do that you know  you served imagine you served and you don't have. a uniform do you know what i mean i mean i'm a  marine uniforms are important to us right i mean. our uniform's special to us it makes it helps make  you be who you are as a as a war fighter you know.

and they didn't have that some of them they don't  have weapons they don't have deuce gear they. don't have chest rigs they don't have armor they  don't have eye facts they have they want boots. they have nothing some of them didn't have  rifles we had guys that were using icicles. during training icicles for mock rifles  yes sticks a guy used a water bottle. could you imagine doing a workup to go on  deployment using an icicle as your rifle.

no i mean no i can't and so you're standing  in front of 35 guys on that first day. and the only thing they have is a piece  of yellow ribbon tied around their arm. to show that they're ukrainians when they're  that's how they're identifying each other and. the russians are wearing red red because some  of them don't have uniforms either so they're.

wearing a red piece of ribbon the ukrainians are  wearing it's like paintball in the backyard the. russians don't have uniforms some of them know  because they've they're doing they've had a. lot of conscripts it's not all russian army they  have a lot of conscripts that they're using from. from some of the southern and  eastern regions of ukraine that. the russians have basically been there since 2014  and they're bringing people in from all over syria. you know they're bringing people in from syria  yeah there's chechens there there's chechens.

on both sides as well so one of the ways they're  identified catchments are probably the most nasty. war fighters known to man yeah yeah i mean we  dealt with some of them in iraq obviously as. well right i mean whatever something's going on  those guys pop up but very interesting for me to. learn that they're actually on both sides there's  chechens fighting for ukraine and fighting for. russia as well um but yeah that's what they're  running around we're rubbing on their arm. and no gear you know and it's it's cold and  we're gonna be out here training and we were.

we were pretty tough on them um how many how  many what is like the man-to-gun ratio how many. men are there how many guns are available for  this particular for so we trained we ended up. training two different units one was a little more  equipped than the other um because one was kind of. was fed from the actual army the other one  was this straight territorial defense that was.

spun up in a couple days um i'd say let's  say you have a platoon size 30 people. you'd have 12 of them with no rifles 10 to 12 with  no rifles you'd have the odd like pk sprinkled in. um you know but no no kind of squad set up no  team set up where did they get their guns they're.

getting whatever they can they're getting  them through kind of logistics supply type. stuff right um nobody was using like personal  weapons or anything it was um it's all whatever. they could scratch up from the military right  and and you know they're just scrounging trying. to protect themselves this is why the second  amendment's so important yeah no i mean it's.

it's it's incredible and the first day they're all  running around these guys have no training they're. running around magazine and condition one with  an ak like clear and safe right [ __ ] now right. like i'll help you but i'm not taking around here  because some guy doesn't know what he's doing so. um yeah even weapon safety weapons handling it's  kind of like here sean here's a rifle yeah you. know day one week one you're open there where's  the trigger hoping they can point it in the right. direction you know so it was a lot of that um and  you know we were tough on them just because of the.

the kind of gravity the situation right and  and it was kind of long training sessions. putting them through their paces on stuff  basic stuff fire maneuver type stuff basics. of patrolling hand and arm signals weapons  handling uh you know weapons manipulation that. kind of stuff very basic like to say you or i um  but it's difficult for them obviously and you know.

they're not in the greatest of shape a few days  ago they were whatever they were in life now all. of a sudden you know and we kind of good caught  bad cop that you know the same way you know you. experience that at your selection processes  we experience that our selection processes. you're not really mad at them you're  motivating them you push the same thing. that we've seen um and we just kind of naturally  good cop bad cop and i can get pretty fiery and.

emotional and so zach was kind of playing the  the good cop um you know but it was serious and. we had to if we saw they were losing focus or we  saw that they were getting tired it's like hey. there's no russians in my country right they're  here and you're they're not next door they're here. take this [ __ ] serious and let's get to  work right because this is going to happen. you're going to go to the front and i always  thought like i remember 18 years old you know.

here at boot camp and this was before 9 11.  nothing really going on in the world right. and i remember the drill instructors like hey you  guys are going downrange and in boot camp you have. obviously your infantry your combat mos is in  there with like supply in there with guys who are. you know handing out pillows at the rec  center for the next four years whatever. and you're like come on the guy we're not going  to war kind of thing there's no war right the 911. happens everybody goes so for them it's that they  may be thinking look we're territorial defense.

we're not going to war we're just helping here and  if the war comes here that's fine but the war's. not here we had to set that expectation for them  and i'm glad we did because now those units are at. the front wow so that so some of them still just  don't get it it's like they're in your country. and you you still think it's surreal it's not  coming here it's surreal though isn't that i mean. imagine right now we're sitting here imagine if  in new york north carolina south carolina georgia.

the russians invaded yeah but we're here  right it's an unbelievable thing you think. of 911 when that happened you're sitting  watching it it's real but it's unbelievable. yeah so i think and it was so early i don't  really think they had really hit them yet. they had done this incredibly patriotic thing they  had signed up and this was before they were i mean.

these guys signed up before now everybody's  kind of forced to sign up right but these guys. signed up before that was even put in place so  they've done an incredible thing but they just. you know the same way uri you wouldn't  feel the full aspects and the full kind of. gravity of that at that time you know so we're  trying to paint that picture for them and. you know like a funny story when the the  air raid sirens would go off every night.

and uh one time they went off during the day  when we were training and the guys were kind of. freaked out you know what should we do should  we take cover you know they're talking to the. major they're talking to kind of their platoon  leadership and all this and i lost my mind right. i'm like look we're not hearing any we're  hearing sirens we're not hearing any impacts. we're not stopping and going inside and going  to a basement for a siren we had to give them. a little bit of a chewing give them the whole if  you don't have any if you don't hear any impacts.

we don't really care i mean we care but unless  that stuff's landing near us we're all right. but this is uh this is life  in the ukraine at the moment. you know if a round lands there we'll go inside. we're training right rounds are going to be  coming at you downrange you're not going inside.

when that starts happening so setting that  expectation with them because they're civilians. and getting them into that you know kind of trying  to pump them up you know we never broke them down. we weren't thrashing them we weren't you  know making life miserable for them like. we've experienced it wasn't about that it was  about lifting them up getting them the right. training so they could perform breaking them  down is not gonna they're already broken down. their country's been invaded right so it was it  was building them up and kind of enabling them.

to be able to fire and move in the right direction  and you know defend their country when they have. to when they have to do it so you know i think we  hit the ground running training those guys but we. definitely got better at it as the days went  by and you know the two groups that we trained. were very different um funnily enough the actual  military unit that was fed from the military unit.

it was a few days into the war but they  already were starting to get burnt out. because their command their  leadership had them doing patrols. standing watch training and they were not  living in the best of conditions at all um. and they were pretty burned out so even talking  to the leadership and saying like hey think of the. threat level where we are right now yeah they need  to protect the base they need to be patrolling. properly like sentry type patrols and they need  to be standing guard properly but you can't be.

burning them out right now because by the time  you get to the front you know yeah they're going. to be gassed out the actual volunteers will call  them they were more motivated more inspired more. energetic than the regular army guys wow which was  pretty interesting because we had to train them. differently because of that you know you know we  had to treat them differently because of that um. so yeah that was that was pretty interesting i  mean the first day we went to the regular army.

base and we met uh a captain there we met  the major there he was pretty locked on but. um and you could tell his head was  spinning he had a lot going on and. he actually cut a meeting short with us to  go see a friend of his that had been shot. on the front and and we were kind of thinking  like would you mean you're leaving your men to. go see your friend at the front no you know what  i mean if it was a you know 105 that just up and.

leaves the guys to go see his buddy we wouldn't  do that here right i mean that's terrible your. friend got shot hopefully he's okay everything  good but you don't leave your guys to go do that. but he did i mean it was just interesting  right that's something i hadn't seen before. and we worked for the captain there and the first  few days we were there you could tell that guy was. just wrecked so stressed out so strung out um  you know the way the world's on the guy and we. just told them look man your guys need you to be  effective you need to get your sleep you need to.

you know get yourself you need to be eaten  and and by the end they kind of you know. the good thing was they were very receptive  to whatever we told them um and on the same. with the defensive positions we'd be in town the  rest of the day working our humanitarian stuff and. our contacts and our network and all this and  you'd see the guys filling sandbags building. you know bunkers and and changing some stuff up  and all this it was i mean they took what we said.

seriously and right away got into action with the  stuff you know when we left a group in the morning. we would tell the officer here's how you need to  train the guys the rest of the day and basically. gave them their training plan for the rest of  the day here's what we want you to work on for. tomorrow and say like we'd have you demonstrate  it not let the rest of the guys do it practice it. but you need to work on this for tomorrow's the  first thing we're going to do when we come back.

and we did that as a way to evaluate how well  they were training because if we came back the. next day and they look like garbage i mean you'd  know if you showed somebody how to clear a room. and said okay practice us i'll be back tomorrow  and you come back tomorrow let me see it and it. was garbage you know they didn't practice the  day before yeah so we put these kind of things. in place just to number one help us see where  the guys are at and to make sure that they were. training you know and we're not getting paid to  do this we're not we didn't go there to do this.

you know i we just saw that need and tried to plug  that hole yeah you know and and we you know we i'm. proud of those guys because in the in the days  that we were there they got exponentially better. you know and by the end i told zach i said look  if if something kicked off in this town right now. i mean they're not good don't get me wrong right  they're not good they're not like if it was you. and i running and gunning but i'd stand with them  i know the day one i mean they got to be a hundred.

times better than what they were yeah exactly  yeah and it was like day one oh geez right but. by the time and i think you've seen some of the  videos the fire movement stuff we had them doing. some of the ia drills and all that um you know for  contact we had them breaking contact uh we didn't. get too crazy into any ambushes and and all that  kind of stuff but um as far as fire movement goes. they were pretty locked on by the end of it  communicating you know it was uh it was impressive.

they took it both groups took it very seriously  and and got to a decent level and you know it's. kind of emotional because when we left it was like  two three day i've only been back for like a week. two three days after we got back we got word that  that unit the one unit went to the front already. wow and so you're like man it's it's pretty heavy  right because i think if we weren't there the army.

unit went to the unit went to the front yeah and  uh if we weren't there and didn't train those guys. imagine how they would have  been going to the front now. you know at least now they had something  how far were you guys from the front um. we'll say i don't know maybe. five hour drive the five hour drive well to go  way out east yeah i mean four or five hours okay.

now i mean the the some stuff's moving obviously  um and how long ago was that how long ago were. we there today today is march 18th so we were  there end of february through like we got back. the ninth okay of march so um well we got done  with them ninth of march with with those units. so yeah a few days after that we'd say beginning  of this week we got word that they were at the.

front wow still with no no uh body armor no  helmets never going to the front going to the. front yeah hopefully you know god willing they  they uh had some gear like that for them there um. but these guys were running around with ak  mags in their pockets know i mean could you. even imagine training without gear let alone  you know and we one story that happened at the.

kind of the underground place was i said look  there's a team of seamstresses in town they want. to know how they can help and my partner he had  done some r d for some nylon companies since he's. been out designing different things and and he  actually tested some of them with the marine corps. some some products so he's like hey let's see if  we can get these seamstresses to make chess rigs.

so we we start designing this chess rig  showing it to the seamstress and she's. kind of looking like never made anything like  this before but let's give it a crack you know. and she comes back the next day and it  kind of was a disaster right it was not. up to scratch at all it was a prototype but it  was it was terrible right good effort but no. so and i remember in iraq when  we were doing vehicle-born stuff.

i was often in the turret and so i kind of went  slick with gear when i was in the turret right. my gear was all down inside the inside the gun  truck so what i did have though was a bandolier. one of those old-school brand new leaders slinging  it over right with the three mags in there so i. said maybe we just make a bandolier you know and  so we designed a bandolier and she comes back the. next day and it was fantastic right it was they  were worried about it like moving obviously so it.

was slung across and it had a tie around the waist  as well to secure it so it's sitting on your side. you know obviously stuff you could use in a  vehicle as well right like remember like training. in inside a vehicle so we saw we loved it and  we have pictures right and you can show those um. we took it to the kernel and we walked in we told  he didn't know we were doing this we told them.

hey what do you think of this and this is a guy  again wait the world on his shoulders he has all. this stuff going on in his town you know imagine  the stress of that guy a colonel during wartime. right and he just lit up like a christmas tree he  was so happy and so we went back and we told her. we said look make as many of these as you can 25  people and she just started bursting out crying. and she goes and it's it's very emotional she was  like i can't believe that i'm gonna have such an.

effect on the war wow you know what i mean i mean  tears yeah you know i'm crying about that because. she just broke down and something she made with  her hands these guys have nothing but now they. have that because of her and her team and so  they've made videos um i'll see if i can get you. the video of them like actually sewing them sewing  machines it's not commercially produced right. sewing machines by hand making these bandoliers  velcro i mean fantastic nice kind of same material.

like our camis are made of you know pretty heavy  duty they'll be they'll be fine they'll be uh. good but those guys are using those at the front  wow so they went from ak mags in their pockets. to at least now they have a piece of gear yeah you  know so and that's why we need companies you know. when i was in the marine corps there were a  lot you know you had your blackhawk you had.

some of these aftermarket type nylon companies  that make incredible gear nowadays my goodness. it's it's i look at some of the gear or somebody  tells me about some of the gear that's out there. now i'm like man that's fantastic right  it makes you want to go and list again. just to use just to use some of that gear right um  and i know many of these companies are started by. veterans who have used or needed this gear  and everyone talks about hey we're doing.

this for the end user we're doing this for the  end user well you know what these guys are the. end user yeah and they need that they need  that stuff and look i get it it's a business. i get it the pandemics happened it's it's tough  i'll try and raise you know i'll raise money and. buy a cost or whatever but if any of these  companies can donate it's going to the end. user like the real end user who has nothing  else it's not like hey i have the stuff that.

supply issued me and i just want better kit  it's not that because these guys have nothing. yeah you know so and there are some guys that  have already contacted us like the guys at. gbrs have are putting something together to try  and help with some gear and you know those guys. are incredible and and that's going to be great  if if that pans out but they need more we need big. companies yeah we need we need companies we need  and like i said we'll figure something out you.

know i i under i'm not saying give everything away  if you can do that that's amazing but i understand. it's business right we'll try and  make it happen we have connections to. diplomats in that country um and you  know some high-ranking officers that. they know it's a desperate need yeah if  we can get these companies money we will. if they can donate that would be incredible  as well but this is anything too this is.

this is plate carriers this is cami's helmets  flashlights they don't have eye facts boots socks. all this kind of stuff we have  the um we have the pattern for the. uh camouflage uniforms that  they have i think it's mm-14. is the pattern i think um so if anyone  can mass produce tops and bottoms in that. pattern that would be fantastic as well  they don't have uniforms and like i said.

something as small as a uniform makes  a big difference yeah do you know what. i mean oh it boosts the confidence exactly  and and you know same with any kind of gear. anything if you if you're a company they're now  gloves gloves everything that you have you've. stuff that you know you're not going to move hey  this product just didn't sell nobody hey maybe.

there's a product something new came out this is  the older version these guys will take it you know. i'll take it yeah so um yeah i mean i'm not i'm  i'm interjecting here with a plug but like get a. hold of me if you're one of these people you can  really make a difference to these guys because. um yeah it's pretty it's pretty incredible what  they're doing with what they have as well well. plug whatever you want that's why you're here  and that's why we're doing this show so um on.

that note let's take a quick break when we come  back i want to talk about some of the diplomats. that you were talking to and i want to talk about  some of the intelligence that you gathered while. you're over there on what's actually happening  on the ground in the front sounds good all right.

all right mark so we're back from the break we're  going to talk about you talked to a number of. high-level diplomats we're talking about  the ministry of defense correct yeah. so let's go into some of that and let's let's go  into some of the intel that you're getting about. what's actually going on on the front yeah so we  um how we got connected with these people was we. built quite an extensive network had a lot of like  good connections to to a lot that was going on in.

country we kind of happened to fall into it we um  you know we did some work to cultivate that a bit. but we just kind of met the right people at  the right time and it opened up a lot of doors. and and you know when you're doing something like  that you take advantage of those opportunities so. how we or when we spoke to the diplomats was um  we were leaving uh on our way home had crossed the.

border and was driving through the neighboring  country to get back to the airport to at home. and we get a seven hour drive  couple hours and we get a phone call. you we want you to meet at the embassy in this  country the ukrainian embassy in this neighboring. country okay right i mean let's go right zach said  hey they want us to go there i'm like all right. might as well add this as well to what we've been  doing you know so we go there um we met up with.

the contact that we had and then we started  sitting down with these diplomats the first. was we'll say she was involved in we'll say like  civil affairs type stuff very concerned about. refugees she was dealing a lot with that and our  point of speaking to her was the logistical chain. obviously i'm sure many people are familiar  with hey sending stuff to ukraine saying donate.

all this kind of stuff it's coming from  neighboring countries all the neighboring. countries you can't send anything directly  to ukraine right now for obvious reasons. there's massive logistical issues  getting any kind of supplies in. because of kind of bills of lading and  manifests and just how all that international.

yeah all that stuff so we were kind of telling  her she was asked she wanted to know from us. what we saw on the ground and what people need  so that she can better maneuver in those channels. like by law right and by regulation and  it's very messy it's very difficult um. we had we were in contact with a lot of  people other ngos and just a lot of people who.

were really motivated to try and get supplies. in country and that could be anything from you  know bullets and band-aids type stuff gear for the. guys down to diapers for kids and and war right  and it's just very it's very muddy on getting. that stuff so these organizations in america  and around the world are very motivated to do it. and i'm not saying if you send a box of stuff  if you do a fundraiser in your local community.

for ukraine and you get boxes of stuff and you  send it to one of these neighboring countries i'm. not saying it sits in a warehouse somewhere  but it might sit in a warehouse somewhere. you know i mean it's and that's tough  because it's tough for me to think. about that because like i've been there in  ukraine and i see the need for this stuff. and i obviously know especially americans how big  our hearts are and how motivated we can be and how. actionable we can be when people are in need and  you know that warm and fuzzy like hey we donate.

there's a sticky side to that on the other end  and so we wanted to meet with her or we were lucky. enough to meet with her to try and clear some of  that stuff up and it was very circle talky because. you know can we do this can we do that can  we make this happen can we have that happen. and god bless her she's trying her best but  there's just a lot of roadblocks for that.

kind of stuff we have a network where we can get  stuff to those to a specific board there and we. can have our guys pick it up at that board there  so it'd be like you handing it to me okay it's not. done through any red i mean and you say yeah but  that's going to be much smaller in scope but it's. not we can do this with big 18 wheeler trucks  we can do this with we have a network for this.

um right now they are in the process of taking  some airports that are close to the borders. in these neighboring countries shutting them  down to commercial travel into things like that. and using it simply for humanitarian type action  which i think will help because you're you know. some of that transportation stuff is where the  red tape is going from you know plane to truck.

to border crossing over and how all that  goes i'm not a big logistical person but i'm. obviously living some of this out now and see  the red tape to me it's like let's just do it. you know you know what i mean it's frustrating  so they're trying uh hopefully some of that's. been cleared up since we had the meeting with  her but these are some of the problems that. they are having our solution is to use our network  right um and kind of do it the old-fashioned way.

you know getting the elbows knees dirty  and and getting it done that way because. some of the other ways are more challenging  we're still working on those other ways. because and they are getting supplies in  there i mean i'm not saying they're not. it's just that a lot of it is very sticky and  it's ever-changing so but our network works and um. you know we're trying to lean on that as heavy as  possible one because it does work and two because.

hopefully if if we can continue doing what we're  doing getting stuff in there like we just got. hundreds of tourniquets in our way which we tried  to get the tourniquets in another way and it was. it was just a nightmare um we're hoping through  kind of validating it that it becomes an example. right and that somebody sees it someone  else sees it someone else sees it and. and um you know i'm not saying it's the best way  but it works and the guys that we have on the.

ukrainian end these two guys uh max and sasha  i mentioned sasha earlier they're incredible. with what they do and they were just two regular  guys patriots for their country that are literally. moving stuff from all over europe from the  from the us from places like holland from italy. from neighboring countries these kind of places  um and they're getting it to their little.

area to their little shack um you know their  little kind of underground shack it's not a. shack i'm just you know what i'm saying and supply  shack and moving it to the front there's networks. of priests that they use that are moving back and  forth secret priest priests that are moving stuff. back and forth um and this goes so we've set up  around lines it's unreal and and here's here's. why it works that way is you know you and i were  in places like iraq afghanistan where the war is.

pretty 360. it's it's all around you this is very  old school this is very there's the front line. and then there's all the lines behind the front  and it's moving things back and forth to the front. and it's like stuff you read in history books yeah  you know world war ii type stuff it's that kind of. warfare it's very conventional yes so setting up  these kind of lines is it's very important and.

it's i'm sure the military's doing it obviously  right i'm sure there's government types that are. doing it but these civilians over there are doing  it and you know a motivated citizen can be pretty. strong i mean you know military government  there's a lot uh hurry up and wait there's a. lot of red tape there's a lot of well we can't do  this just because we can't do it these civilians. they're not they're not putting up with  any of that they're getting stuff done. every single day and it's it's very  impressive like i said we walked into that.

establishment that they had and it was day three  or four of the war when we walked in there i you. know you could swear they were doing that for a  year everything was so well oiled people moving. left right center this stuff's coming in  this stuff's going out this stuff's being. organized and distributed these people are  moving through like we were helping a lot with uh. moving people refugees people  that are escaping the front. can i we did a little processing thing there we'd  interview as many of them as we could to gather.

intel on what's going on at the front what's  going on in those towns what did the people need. um and those interviews are tough right because. and and i think you know i have some of those i've  shared them with you that they're tough because. that person let's say one example there was a  man that left an area under heavy combat with his. wife and daughter she's 13 14.  the door and he's pretty shaken up.

right and you're sitting there and you're  poking him for information and you know he's. he's no he's not involved in this he's not in the  military he's not a government guy he's just a guy. but he's an intel source and if it's me talking to  him i'll poke i'll you know i'll stick the finger. in that hole right but there's one interview  specifically that we have on video where zack's. interviewing him and i just remember sitting  there and you know he's he's doing what good.

maureen does right he's getting the intel from  the guy and i'm just sitting there like shut up. man leave the guy alone like let him be let him  breathe but you have to get that intel because. then we take that and we use it for those supply  lines we use it for helping get other people out. um and that's all done through  this network that we've kind of. cultivated you know and when we're there hey  can we do this hey can this happen hey they. need this all right let's do it what kind  of intel is he giving you troop movements.

um weapons that are being used what's being hit  transportation uh out of the city you know like. hey can you get out in a car is there train  lines that are working um you know during your. movement did you see any russian troops um what  let's go into all of it what are they hitting. kind of everything that i  don't think they're being too.

discriminatory on what they hit um it's obviously  they're attacking some of these big cities. talking about it right the major cities and um  are they differentiating between civilians and. no in military not from what we've seen or  heard no they're killing everyone yeah i think. what i last heard was there's been more  civilians killed than ukrainian soldiers wow.

so um and i'm sure i can't really speak to what's  being shown in the media like you mentioned i'm. not really following a lot of it i followed it  before we went and since i've been back i've been. ear to the ground with the guys that are  there and that's kind of where i'm getting. my stuff from the media there just to clear up  kind of okay yeah well you're talking to guys. in country they're just giving you their end of it  from what their media says the media there because.

we watch the media every night there the ukrainian  media it's very positive it's very patriotic. obviously it's propaganda but it's very it's there  to inspire they're not talking about this many. ukrainians got killed in this town on this front  doing this it's here's the tanks that we blew up. here's the gypsy stealing tanks um which i'm  sure those videos are making the rounds it's. pretty funny right these gypsies are stealing  russian tanks um i'll never not laugh at that.

it's incredible it's incredible right just driving  down the street in a tank um their media is very. to inspire the people to keep the spirits up yeah  i don't know if i completely agree with that i. if it was me i'd prefer if it was me putting  out that kind of media i'd prefer it to be. unbiased here's our wins here's our losses  because i think you run the risk of um. when you're only talking about the good  things your country's doing if something.

bad happens you know what's war you're going  to win some battles you're going to lose some. something really bad happens you run the risk  of the morale of the people taking a nosedive. i think right no but yeah everything over  there is very positive which again i'm not. they're not lying to the people they're just  kind of not supporting everything yeah i think. they're getting a lot of the negative stuff  on instagram there's some channels set up on. instagram ukrainian channels that are kind  of showing a lot of live footage a lot of.

the humanitarian disaster stuff that's going  on in cities like mariupol and and all this. kind of stuff where it's just i mean they're  drinking water out of the drains at this point. like out of the drains oh the sewer drains  there's no water there's no electricity. yeah it's it's humanitarian disaster and  they're just leveling the city right i mean. i think in russia's history you know even the  worst they had the two chechen wars they had their.

plan is to go in and decimate everything like tear  your whole town pieces because that's going to. break you i mean it's a war yeah but i mean people  people don't understand war i don't understand it. and especially americans don't understand it  you know that we've come up with all these these. rules right you know and there are no rules yeah  we're the only ones that have the right and you. know it's it's very funny i mean you've been  there you've done it i've been there and done it.

we follow those rules yeah those rules do get  gray sometimes and you do things that sometimes. are off the reservation a little bit but by and  large we're not attacking civilians right i never. seen anybody attack civilians when we were in  iraq or anything like that we don't attack or. destroy towns just for the sake of doing it right  i mean um but that's different there they're there.

to win yeah we follow they're there to take over a  country we follow these rules and when one mistake. happens go for bid it's everywhere and it's  like you guys are [ __ ] bags hey look a mistake. happened i get it we don't we're not in the  business where we can afford to make mistakes but. that happens it's war it's not like that there  there's no rules like you said and that's their. game plan the rule is to win yes that's no matter  what yeah and russia's history has been full of.

you know when they start to stall on  an offensive they can't take a city if. they're taking heavy losses all throughout  their history it turns to the civilians. you know because that breaks the people  yeah and that's gonna make the army back. off the opposing army back off and it's gonna  it's gonna get people talking and that's what. is starting to happen in ukraine as we're sitting  here what are they worried about are they are they.

are they worried about the chemical  weapon threat now i'd say the last. i mean like i said we're talking about this  real time the last 24-36 hours yes because. from what we're hearing everything's pretty much  stalled when it comes to uh kiev and uh har cave. uh mario paul like all the big heavy front  lines the russians are have been pretty much.

stalled and are starting to dig in right i  mean they're getting blown up their tanks. are getting blown up with javelins and they're  putting tanks in defensive positions which now. your tanks are just sitting there at least to  me like i'm not a i was never a general level. officer obviously i've never planned wars but  that doesn't make sense so they're digging in. and it's kind of they're showing signs  of this desperation their morale is low. from everything that we're here and  they're losing they've lost more people.

since the ukraine war started in 2022 i'm not  including everything from 2014 but this year. end of february to now mid-march as we're sitting  here they've lost more people than we lost in iraq. and afghanistan over 20 years you know putin is  this is what i've read you know putin is actually. because a lot of russians are upset about what's  going on too yes and he is actually cremating.

the bodies so that the russian people don't see  how many deaths they're actually they don't want. he doesn't want his own people to see the stacks  of bodies coming back that were killed in ukraine. so he's actually cremating them in ukraine  and just bringing ashes back so it doesn't. look as devastating as it actually is yeah  they've been doing that kind of thing since um. 2014 and not to bore people with all the  history but there's been russians in ukraine.

fighting since 2014 secretly there is some  information about this if you dig you'll find it. um they're not supposed to be there down in the  south and in the east there are military groups. and paramilitary groups and militias that  have been fighting kind of the secret war. ukrainian groups and russian groups since 2014  a lot of people watching this will have heard. vladimir putin talk about we're doing this  special military military operation in ukraine now.

to denazify the country and all this and a  westerner can look at that and go what are you. talking about the nazify ukraine their president's  jewish doesn't make any sense he's crazy. he's not crazy what's happening with that when  he says that that i think he's referring to. based on obviously all the research  you can do you'd have to ask the man. but there's a there was a  militia battalion from 2014.

down in that area of mario paul called the  azov battalion it's about 8 900 of them. some of them like if if you've heard of the ass  off battalion you say okay they're nazis neo-nazis. ukrainian neo-nazis not entirely true some of them  were or are of the eight or nine hundred and it's. nowhere near 100 of them i don't know exactly how  many but i know for a fact it's not all of them.

and that's what he's talking about  so if you're saying you're going to. war with the entire country of ukraine over  a small fraction of eight to 900 people. in that city that doesn't make sense to me right. you say well okay and we never saw any neo-nazi  any white supremacist stuff anywhere in country. we obviously we're very observant marines  we're checking all the graffiti in towns.

we're checking posters and pictures and you know  as you were right we're checking out them and. like going over everything fine tooth comb nothing  we interviewed many people spoke to many people. none of that going on there again your country  gets invaded in 2014 everybody fights against. it you're good guys and if you have neo-nazis  in your country they defend the country too. same thing would happen here doesn't mean it's  kind of that saying uh all dalmatians are dogs.

they're not all dogs are dalmatians yeah  right it's that kind of thing so i get it. the ukrainian government it's a government it's  probably not squeaky clean obviously think of. the think of some of the stuff we've uncovered  that our government's done with ukraine ukrainian. government all that it's not squeaky clean but in  times of war and when your country gets invaded.

some of that has to go out the window we're not  talking it's not about politics at this point. um so yeah that whole area down there is being  decimated and and people are saying why mario. paul obviously it's down there by the sea and  it's an important kind of location there but the. war's been going on there for the last 14 years  and like you said they're sneaking bodies back. there are shallow unmarked graves in some of these  areas in ukraine of russian soldiers that were.

there between 2014 and now and you're like well  then you get into the long conversation of where. they ordered to go there are they breaking away  from the military and just doing ops across the. border in ukraine like how is all that that all  plays into the war and i don't think the west is. portraying that right it's just russia ukraine  nato how does that all play out and we're not. getting the full story on the why for all of this  yeah because i don't think vladimir putin's crazy.

the guy's been pretty sharp his entire career i  don't think he's a madman i don't think he's nuts. he seems pretty calculated he always has but i  think they've wanted to do this for a long time. you know this is and i mean i i believe you're  right he's very calculated and and and the same. with china is very calculated and they don't have  to worry about elections and they don't have to.

worry about power changing exactly and i think  they've had this planned for a very long time. and they've all they've been waiting to do is  just push the button it's all been in place for. the circumstance where they can push them and they  waited until the u.s was at its weakest point that. it's been in a long time and here we are one year  in and they push the button yeah i agree i mean. it has been building up obviously since before  2014 but really at that point is kind of like.

you know he was working that plan then 2016  happens and he backs off or backs off he. doesn't do this we'll see right yeah he had it  planned the whole time yes he was just waiting. for the weakness right and they got it and  and they know it might take a little bit and. that's why they did it right now and it's very  tricky because along that eastern side of ukraine. many of those people don't consider themselves  ukrainians they're rush they consider themselves.

russian they don't speak ukrainian they speak  russian the line divides them but they don't. they want to be part of russia their local  governments their police departments their. everything there within their infrastructure  of their towns and communities. is russian and so that's sticky right i mean. how does that work like you can't just give that  if you're ukraine you can't just give that away. they might have to as part of  clearing this whole thing up.

but that's we don't under stand that whole side of  what's going on you know i mean there were things. like this with iraq and afghanistan too right  but um i don't think and like i said correct. me if i'm wrong i'm not watching a lot of the  media here in the us i don't think though that. that is being put out there in the media it's  not i mean i don't watch a whole lot of it either. like i said right from the beginning they've  already debunked the media lying about all kinds.

they actually found one story that they were  putting out that was actually from a video game. really yeah it was from a video game they were  calling them there was some pilot they were saying. that was running around killing all these russians  yeah and it got debunked and it was actually. from a video game like the character yeah oh  well and i think they were even using footage. from the video game and that got there was  another thing that happened too though they.

was like miss ukraine or somebody um had a an  ar-15 or an ak or something and they were like. look everybody's armed and it wound up that  was like a that was an airsoft gun from like. five years prior or something and yeah i mean  that's what's good about the internet and the. instagram age and all that is you can get a lot of  information very quickly yeah but also you get a. lot of that kind of stuff well that was mainstream  media yeah right there but um fox news i believe.

but i'm actually i'm sure it was all of them  but anyways i don't even want to get into the. the yeah so they're talking with these diplomats  you know one thing though i'm sorry to cut you off. i want to go back to the chemical weapons because  that is one thing that's big and they're finding. all these labs which um supposedly are pretty  irrelevant now but um there is a big and they just. came out again today to saying that it's looking  more and more likely that there is going to be. he's going to utilize chemical weapons yeah are  they prepared for this at all are they worried.

about it well i think there's a lot of worry for  it obviously um and it's it's very worrisome that. you know we see that they're attacking civilians  yeah i mean if you're attacking civilians with. tanks and missiles what's a chemical weapon at  that point right i mean it's the next thing in. line it's not well that will that will demoralize  them even more yes when you see what those. chemical agents are going to do to the human  body and he's used them before in syria right.

and you know um yeah that changes everything um  the nuclear thing as well i mean he has and i just. i just researched this one the last couple of days  when when uh the talk with the the nuclear thing. was happening because it was so funny one morning  i can't remember what morning it was but i woke up. it was like six a.m in ukraine getting  ready to get the day going and i had like. 18 messages on my phone it was when that  uh the day the nuclear plant got attacked.

they were actually fighting at the nuclear  plant right had like 18 messages on my phone. everybody back home like you guys have to get  over there right now they're you know the nuclear. thing and all this it's like barely got to sleep  out my eyes i'm like okay whatever right i mean. it's war this is what we're doing  here um so the nuclear thing though is. russia we are very kind of strict as far as i know  protocols on when we would use nuclear weapons.

right russia does have it in their charter  their kind of ways of doing their country. it's not like a constitution but you know  i mean where it does allow the president. the the smaller tactical nuclear devices the  ability to use those not freely but more openly. than like if he's using it on an icbm type  thing right so that's obviously worrisome. as well especially the point they're at the  war where they're taking these heavy losses.

and struggling to take over some of these towns  that you know everybody thought he's just going. to run right in and take over kiev for example  it's not happening they're stalled there they're. fighting like dogs there and fighting the  russians back you know i'd imagine there's. a lot in this for putin if he loses this whole  thing where does a guy like that go from here. right yeah our president's calling him a war  criminal right i mean i don't know if that's. just rhetoric but if you start calling people that  that's a legal term international law type thing.

right so if they pursue that you know and then if  you're putin and you feel your backs up against. the wall and you have access and permission to  use these kind of weapons i mean i don't know the. guy but maybe he does use them right and i don't  think anybody's really prepared for that i mean. where does our country where does nato fit  if there's a nuclear or chemical attack you.

know if it's nuclear and that gets in the air  and crosses borders is that an article five. i mean he's what's nato gonna do they've al he's  already used him in syria did any were there any. repercussions no we've been fighting al qaeda  taliban isis for how many years do they fall. under yeah but the difference is if you know let's  say he does a nuclear weapon and some of that goes. over into poland let's say you know is that enough  to trigger an article 5 thing i mean i don't know. they're going to have to play all that out but  they're still going to have to go get them you're.

going to that that's the you know because you're  going to they're not going to you're going to have. to or you should go and do something about this  guy i'm not one for obviously saying put americans. there i'm not one for saying americans should  be flying air missions there american pilots. but my personal opinion is you know i'm  also not for like at this point where we. are today the no flies on things a big talk  you know the ukrainians are asking for it all.

the people we're talking to are talking about  it i don't think that's even a thing because. who if if you're having that and it gets broken  you have to enforce it we're not going to enforce. it it's going to be like the red line in syria  right like hey we have a no-fly zone it gets. broken we're not going to do anything about  that so don't even have it don't use it don't. put it in there and then not do anything about it  when it kicks off um but i do think we should be.

arming them more which this week obviously steps  were taken to to do that a lot of money a lot of. and i've read the report of what's actually in  that aid package the military package a lot of. good stuff right but the jets you know hey there's  even an opportunity where we're not giving them. our jets other countries will give them the  jets and we backfill the the other countries. i know there's a lot of talk right now that  that's offensive action i wouldn't think flying.

jets around your own country is offensive  i understand if you take a ukrainian jet. fly into russia and bomb moscow for example  that's offensive but having an air capability. within your own country is defensive i  mean do you agree you know giving a guy. a javelin and having our intelligence  department who have been in ukraine for.

over a month before this happened just in  the talks of it the parliament the the cia. para military organization was there teaching  these guys how to use javelins how to properly. um use sniper capabilities um and i don't know  if this has been talked about publicly or not. at this point but this has happened um how can  you say that that's defensive and giving jets.

to defend your own airspace is offensive yeah  that doesn't make sense to me um you know they. are doing a great job with the javelins right  now right they're taking out a lot of tanks a. lot of aircraft and that's been huge but i think  we can still do more it's kind of one of those. things like well they're doing well so we don't  need to do anything else no they're doing well. help them out on top of that yeah um so when it  comes to the nuclear thing i think it is the more.

the more ukraine fights back continues to do  well continues to defend their country puts. a lot of pressure on the russians and you  don't really know what they're going to do. under that pressure is there a lot of chatter  between these diplomats you were talking to and. the the guys on the ground that are i mean is this  a major concern when we spoke to the uh defense.

the the defense diplomat we spoke to was an  attache to the ministry to the minister of. defense at the ukrainian embassy in this  neighboring country um so basically the. representative of the ministry of defense in that  country at the embassy at the time we spoke to him. um you know stuff's changed now with the  nuclear stuff we didn't get into that he was.

more concerned with um they needed warfighters  they obviously have that foreign legion thing. going on and you're getting all kinds of people  joining that he gave us some insight into that um. and he says it's doing well they're getting some  people with experience um but they're getting a. lot of people with no experience kind of people  with very romantic ideas of just going over and. helping and not just from america there's all  kinds of countries being involved he says it's.

great we appreciate it but he he basically  said to us he's like we need guys like you. he goes if he he said specifically we need your  warriors if you have any warriors that want. to come over here and help don't send them don't  tell them to go to this international legion thing. you have them connect with you and you connect  with me and we'll get them set up to do their own. thing um because they're very short of trained  people obviously and their army in general was.

heavy outnumbered what does he want  him for does he want him to train. his guys or does he want him on the front  lines killing russians both so we are um. we're going to be helping a lot going forward  with the training we're looking for guys as you. mentioned at the top of the show to go over and  train um we're working on how that's gonna all. work again this was not the plan this was zach and  i stumbling into this we made um some good strides.

we it worked and so we want to replicate it and we  need proper guys to do it um and so we're looking. with guys like that that will be directly done  through some of these channels that we're doing um. but he also is looking for people that want  to go and fight like special operators that. want to go and help i don't know if that's  like i don't know exactly his plan for that.

i know it's not joining a regular though for those  kind of guys it's not joining a regular ukrainian. army unit it's different um i know as  well there are some groups of former. operators that are over there obviously on the  humanitarian side but on the warfighter side. as well that are on their own program and  are working side by side with the ukrainian.

military actively engaging yes um i'm not going  to talk too much about who those people are and. where they are but they are there and the the  diplomat said we want and need more of that. okay i don't know i i you know our government  has said it's not illegal to go and do that. obviously things get gray and get muddy when  you're working on an official capacity with.

their government i you know we're doing everything  through that guy so it's all kind of above board. kosher all that kind of stuff um so yeah  if anybody is interested in that reach out. and i know for a fact you won't be put into  a regular ukrainian army unit or some foreign. one of their foreign groups that they have which  are they're doing you know it's incredible there. are people from all over the world that are  going to help um i know some guys are kind of.

there's been some reports of guys who  do that and when they get there they're. highly they've really misunderstood  what they were getting themselves into. yeah they went there for the romantic idea  maybe they're larpers maybe they're just you. know former whatever and just want to go help  but when they're there they're seeing what it. is and hey this is not what i thought i  was signing up for it's war right yeah um.

but they are appreciative of those guys  from all the countries they told us he. named off eight or nine countries that they have  people um going there and i know there are some. units like i think there's a group of british guys  that are they're part of that foreign legion but. they've separated them out i know there's a group  of canadians where they've done that and like hey. now all you canadians are a platoon or a you  know company or whatever and and they're but. they're still doing stuff for the army this  special operations message mission that.

they're looking for with former operators  is going to be separate from all of that. um and we can help get those guys in place okay  um so yeah just reach out if anybody's interested. there but it's only you know there's a vetting  process so you're not going to sneak into it right. um and that's kind of his that was his focus when  he spoke to us was the training and basically he.

said on the training side how many of you guys  can you get to do this and we were basically how. how many guys you need and we can see what we  can spin up you know um again we don't really. have the infrastructure for that we're talking  about how to do that um kind of the intake the. the orientation here before everybody punches  over but we're working that right now and we're. working it with uh are you talking about how  to sift through and see who's who yeah and then. um how are you planning on doing that um we have  a couple of ways we have some are you gonna take.

like discharge like dd214 papers yeah we have  a kind of protocol of what we're looking for. um but yeah it's gonna be we're gonna have to see  your papers for references all this kind of stuff. um what exactly are you working looking for is  it strictly special operations guys yep yeah um. yeah and we're not going to  budge on that right because.

that's what we've committed to doing and we  don't want yeah but this guy's good or this guy's. trained you know he's done some uh fed stuff  before we're not playing that game we need. that those levels of guys um and that's what  we've committed to do and that's what they. want so that's what we're trying to give them  well why don't we why don't you just rattle off. spec specific units that you're looking  for or specific specific mls's um.

obviously seals green berets marine  reconnaissance yeah our sock yes uh attack p. yes pjs yep yeah any rangers any of the air force  um special operations um obviously medical is. a big component of what we did we taught them  medical classes now they have no medical like. simple stuff uh like body aid type stuff you know  to get to higher levels of care that plug-in holes. tourniquets that kind of stuff um so anybody  on that side you know like uh sarks you know um.

18 delta type people um you know corman regular  corman we will not take bus a sarc for sure um. air force we mentioned and um rangers yeah for  sure okay what about swick yeah slick text so as. people email in what do you suggest just black  out the social security number and yeah for now.

uh you know on the initial contact just contact  say hey this is who i am i'm interested and we'll. get back to you with our kind of protocol and what  we need and how we need it right um yeah i mean. if you just start blowing up my email with your  paperwork i'm probably not going to look at it. before i want to contact back to you right so  so don't worry about flooding with that just. reach out who are you and that you're interested  and then we'll we'll go from there so um we'll.

have a vetting process and the ukraine will  have a vetting process before these guys cross. the border they'll have to go to that embassy and  and do whatever process they have that they need. done on their side and then they'll you  know facilitate getting to the border. we have a good network there for setting up  safe houses and and transportation and all. this i mean the whole network's there  that we have so back to intelligence.

now china is getting involved and it sounds  like china and russian china and russia are. doing maybe a handshake deal and maybe china  might supply russia with military equipment was. there any chatter of that was was there any fear  or any of that going on that you heard of from. no we i mean defense ministry obviously that's  kind of a new development yeah i haven't talked to.

anybody about that um i think they being so close  to russia i think they kind of understand the. russia chinese connection that's kind of always  been there right yeah so i don't think it's. that's a surprise to anybody including them um but  yeah i mean that changes everything right i mean. i don't think china would give boots on the  ground but china's got a lot of money a lot of. weapons and you know a lot of ways they can help  russia so i think that does change a whole lot of.

what's going on yeah there's definitely a shift  in power happening maybe that takes away some of. the nuclear and chemical threat right so it may be  kind of strange to say but maybe it's good on that. side of things right maybe russia pulls off that  or at least tables that for a little bit right. because if you think about it he mentioned that a  week ago or something putin did the nuclear thing.

and then it's been kind of escalating so  maybe china getting involved takes that off. the table a little bit um it's kind of one good  thing and then a whole lot of bad having china. though so that's why this whole thing's so  complicated you know because then what does. our country do are we okay with china getting  involved with russia if we know that it's. helping russia back off some of the chemical  and nuclear stuff are we okay with that and.

if we're okay with that that's dangerous as well  yeah i don't think we really have any recourse. with china they own our supply chain yes so right  yeah you start you start kicking that door in and. that could get the hurt could come  pretty quick you know when it comes to. yeah supply and all that so yeah it's complicated  it's very very complicated you know um you know. in those levels it's complicated but then again  you know those guys on the front life's pretty.

simple for them right that way and it's it's just  strange how the whole thing's planning out i mean. the china thing does change  everything in my opinion though. it absolutely it was only a matter of time. yeah and it's a way for china to get some of  their stuff done without directly having to do it. did you talk to any other diplomats just those  two um i mean those are big ones no it was it.

was incredible i mean we were sitting there  at that embassy you know two two marines who. a week ago were sitting at home not thinking  of doing any of this and uh now we're sitting. there talking with these guys and you know  it was kind of the the echo of the whole. mission that we did there it's just sure if we can  help let's do it we're in this now right and it. kind of snowballed again i just go back to we went  there to help a friend go home and see his family.

he hadn't been home in 11 years and this happens  and it's just getting him home to see his family. and next thing you know we're sitting with  diplomats in an embassy in a third-party. country you're like this is this is crazy you  know um but you know we have we have the ability. to help we kind of have a will to help people  and we're we're going to keep we're going to. keep pushing at what point did you go forward to  observe so he went from the green beret mission.

yeah to now you're doing your old job yeah  so in a sense we obviously when we were there. people kind of were hearing what we were doing um  we were i mean we were moving and shaking doing a. lot of stuff and there's a lot of ngos trying to  get there trying to help trying to get supplies in. some of it is very romantic kind of whimsical  like hey we want to save the world and all this. kind of stuff some of it is obviously actionable  and is going to pan out but we were contacted by a.

lot of people and there was one group that seemed  to have a lot going and needed help they had some. guys they had two green berets and two seals that  were going to be on former green berries and seals. i have to make that clear i don't want  people thinking uh if i if i mention. that it's former i'm not saying there's our  active people are there doing anything um. that we're gonna be on the ground  for this team for this organization.

so right then there i felt comfortable with  like hey even if the organization is kinda. doesn't have all this ducks in a row these guys  will be good to go i don't know who the guys are. i mean i know their names but i don't know these  guys um and we took you know zach and i kind of. talked he was all for i kind of had reservations  on jumping in and helping because we had our own. stuff going on and we had a pretty strict  routine on what we were doing when and how um.

but they were going to help us with  some supply stuff or they said they. could help us with some supply stuff  on their organizational level and again. you know it's just that mission like  hey you need help we'll help you. and so part of our day involved setting up an easy  transition for them to come in getting safe houses. for them locking on simple stuff like how they're  going to eat right getting food set up for them.

transportation translators warehouses for their  stuff and trying to connect them into our network. which i'm very protective of because of the  people there i love those guys right i love. who they are i love what they're doing i don't  want to be sending them people that's going to. mess up what they have going on there because  it's like i said it's incredibly you have to see. it to believe it what these guys are doing and  i don't want to just hand over anybody to them.

so kicking the tires on that hand off was kind  of stressful kind of intricate it's still kind of. dodgy we're trying not to manage it because we're  not there now right and and we're not these are. this organization is not us but trying to manage  that and so we actually we actually got arrested. because of the because of what we were doing for  for them they tell you the story getting arrested.

so in our ao we were. we were pretty well known and very well helped. anything we needed there's a guy for that anything  in the network anything in town hey i need lunch. there's a guy for that right i need a car i  need this i need that there's a guy for that. this other organization was trying to set  up a warehouse for a lot of their supply.

that was going to be coming in okay we'll  go and we'll recon that for you no problem. it's about 40 minutes away from rao we had been  in that town the very first day we arrived in. country we went there with sasha and he made  a very cursory kind of connection for us there. through the authorities in that  town we didn't operate in that town. we didn't run any kind of nothing we didn't do  anything to that point we grabbed the driver.

it was me yuri our guy obviously he's  going to be our terp and uh me and zach. there was a connection that we had um that's  it's kind of you know how it works it's like. layers of stuff this guy said to this guy to  talk to us like again bad game of telephone. we know that connection was  pretty legit former intelligence. opera of us was connecting us through this  other group to this contact in that town.

kind of complicated we try calling the guy he  says call the guy he's expecting you to call today. calling the guy calling the guy no answer we  said to sasha hey do you want to come with us. because we're going to be we want you connecting  with these guys for the supply chain to get stuff. to the front from this area now no i'm busy i  have other stuff to do thank god i didn't go.

we get in the car we punch out still trying to  call the guy still trying to call the guy no. answer all right we they have like an underground  place there in that town we'll look for it. and we'll look for the warehouse our instructions  were basically find this guy or find the priest. the priest that was working that area right like  two needles in a haystack go find these guys. it's not how we work i told zach right away i said  look man we would never run something like this. it's okay it's okay we'll be all right we'll be  all right and not that i had a weird feeling about.

it but it's just not how we we were doing a job  for another group we wouldn't have done the job. the way they were doing it right  yeah so i didn't i was kind of. grumpy about it but we go and uh we get  there there's still no response from the guy. we can't find the place we're out snooping and  pooping looking around trying to like if you. if you picture like it's not like this but like  a strip mall where there's a bunch of different.

store fronts we're back off the street  trying to see all of them buy some train. tracks and buy some infrastructure we  saw some warehouses buy a wood mill. let's go see if any of those warehouses are needle  and a haystack you know what let's go talk to the. mayor he'll know who we are we'll tell him what's  going on see if he can connect us to this guy. so as we're kind of driving back around town  through the town to go to find the mayor.

does a police car not come screeching in front of  us almost like almost head-on collision with us. these two guys come out with a car they're  almost tripping over their own feet. ak's drawn on us right weapons off safe they  didn't say anything to us they didn't say. get out of the car they didn't give us  any instructions we get out of the car. hands up they start telling us to put our  hands on the car at that point and there's. four of us and we're kind of positioned on  the car i'm kind of the back passenger side.

zach is the back driver's side yuri's kind of over  the the driver's side door and the driver driver's. a total civilian as well probably peed down his  leg and uh these i'm looking straight at the guy. ak pointed there's a guy behind me with the ak  pointed and these guys are shaken like leafs sean. and i'm thinking as soon as these guys know who  we are we're going to be fine right we're not.

russian saboteurs they're going to know who we are  they've they'll have heard of us and they can call. it they can call anybody that we've been working  with the colonel whoever right but these guys are. like visibly shaken weapon off safe guns  pointed at us and i'm gonna get shot here. in 10 minutes or as soon as they can get  me in front of somebody to explain what. we're doing we're fine but this guy  could shoot us right [ __ ] here yeah.

they didn't give up they didn't search us  they were scared didn't even search us right. put handcuffs on one of us uh they yelled to a guy. in a store convenience store to come out go  into their police car and find other handcuffs. they were terrified so they finally get  enough handcuff they don't have enough. handcuffs for me or zack they they  handcuffed the driver in poor yuri.

and the two the two marines  are the ones not handcuffed. another uh and i'm just looking at zach like this  is a you know this is a joke another cop car comes. we all end up in handcuffs they get us back to the  police station they bring in the secret service. and the ukrainian secret service and uh they start  interrogating us and talking to us and all that. obviously our story checks out we give them  our phones they start uh kind of going through. the phones and they can confirm everything that  we're doing we said talk to the kernel blah blah.

now yuri at this point he's been our translator  and for people at home that don't really. understand it's not as simple as like hey just  tell me what he says when you're working with. a translator right there's a there's a a way to  it as we're translating with yuri it's yuri tell. him exactly what i said how i said it right if i'm  pissed off you tell it to him like i'm pissed off. and then tell me exactly what this guy says back  i don't want your opinion i don't want you know.

you giving him your opinion on what i've said i  want exact that's how you work a translator right. at this point though yuri's kind of just he's  not translating he's talking to them and that's. fine we're sitting there in handcuffs and by  the way they put the handcuffs on backwards. so we're sitting there like you know and that's  not comfortable at that point when the handcuffs. are on backwards and you're twisted up and i'm  like maybe i'll ask them if they could fix the. handcuffs but i'm not going to push my luck  right so he's going back and forth and i'm.

just checking in with yuri like okay what's  he saying you know and i'm being quiet and uh. he's asking about our contact who's this guy  where yuri's explaining some time goes by. secret service guys talking to us and interviewing  us and this guy comes in with the chief of police.

and he goes is this your guy and yuri says i  don't know we don't know who our guy is that's. part of the problem we he zack said if you  give me my phone i'll text our other contact. and see if they can send a picture  of the guy they allow him to do that. at this point they know that we're  you know not russian saboteurs. they start talking to that guy are you their guy  no do you work for the are you doing this kind of.

work no i don't know anything about that are you  and they say the name are you this specific guy no. no some other stuff starts going on yuri kicks  off gets like visibly like angry and animated. and i say yuri what's going on he goes that's the  guy i said no it's not the guy you just he said. he's not the guy he goes no no that's the guy he's  been lying about the whole thing and i'm sitting. there in handcuffs and i kid you not i could  have jumped up and bit that guy's throat right.

i was so angry the guy the guy thinks he's in a  james bond movie right and so they and the secret. service guy's looking at me kind of laughing and  winking and saying like i understand why you're. pissed off man you know i was ready for charging  across the room to the guy and so we asked them. like why didn't you pick up your phone  you knew that people would be calling. you you were told that by your by  your contact that we'd be calling.

and he goes oh i didn't recognize the number um  you know it's troubling times i don't want to just. pick up the phone to a random number okay why did  you lie and say that you weren't who you are oh. i thought this was a setup he said again i could  have bit his neck yeah right i mean i was and then. you know it was all hugs and kisses with the  secret service and the police after that and. what's funny those guys actually helped us  they gave us an escort out of the country. when we left um and it was cool we made  secret service contacts through those guys.

and with the chief of police in that town and  they had obviously heard what we're doing so. we built a strong contact in that area through  this um but yeah that whole thing was that whole. thing was crazy and the and the the guys were so  scared the police officers were so scared they had. just found rush they found four russian saboteurs  about three four hours before they rolled us up. so they thought this is round two there's you  know there's more when they when they rolled us.

up they thought we were russian saboteurs wow so  i mean it just then we had to go and do the rest. of canada up with that guy with the shady guy  and he wanted to be all hugs and kisses and i. was like man get the hell away from me you know we  had to go out to this area and wreak on this whole. kind of safe house and warehouse and connect with  this other guy and it was i was like just i want. to get this done right i went away from this guy  and when we got back i said get rid of that guy.

don't use him again he's scared that's fine right  i get it but he you know now we're going to be. bringing other guys in he's not the right guy for  that the guy for the job and we don't part of the. whole turnover thing we wanted to do turnover with  that team of oda guys and seals that was coming in. and their organization couldn't get them off the  ground in time you know it's like 18 hours we're. there and you can't get these guys off the  ground um to do some of this turnover stuff.

um which only obviously only they were gonna  have the backlash of that right and then they. weren't gonna have that warm kind of hand over  but yeah stuff like that it makes you it makes. you realize like there's a lot of people now  that are just trying to go over there and help. if you don't know what you're doing we  knew what we were doing we had a very. you know net i keep talking about our network  we had a pretty good way of of being able to. do things and we still got into trouble so don't  think you can just go over there and start playing.

you know war hero or humanitarian hero it's not  easy you know you have to have your ducks in a row. or you're going to get yourself in trouble yeah  because those people aren't playing around there's. russians in their country right this is not a  hurricane it's not a natural disaster it's not. um they don't know who's who yes and you might  get killed because of some confusion yeah and. it i mean it was it was pretty real i mean i  knew like i said i knew we'd be fine because. of who we were and what we were doing and it ended  up being a great we got great contacts out of it.

um but yeah it was kind of dodgy there for a while  but it was because of that group that you know we. so then that's the other thing too we probably  made a mistake there we should have called ahead. we did have a network there we had contacts there  with the rescue service and with some people. there um outside of everything that we were doing  with this other group we should have called ahead. especially when we couldn't get that guy on  the phone we should have called and said hey.

we're gonna be here and everything would  have been fine so i mean you know that was. definitely a mistake on our end and you know  luckily it didn't turn out too bad for us um. but yeah it's just it's one of those things  you have to dot every eye and cross every. t when you're snooping and pooping doing stuff  like that you know yeah because it wasn't our ao. and we just kind of took that you know it's one  of those things where we we took for granted how. like how loved we were in our ao and how everybody  just helped us and facilitated everything for us.

we we we could do whatever we want in our ao  and everybody supported us um from top to bottom. you know i i think we kind of  took that for granted when we went. 40 minutes down the road and and uh yeah we  just a simple call ahead to our contacts there. we wouldn't have been in trouble then you know  but yeah that was uh it was kind of wild and. and you know yuri was kind of upset about  it because there was some local instagram.

chatter about it and some pictures of us driving  around and and uh like the vehicle we were in and. all this kind of stuff and uh so he was kind of  worried about it on a local level people hearing. all this kind of stuff and it's like you know  obviously he doesn't have any experience with this. and just trying to tell him like look hey when  you go and do this stuff in a foreign country. stuff happens you know it's it's kind of part  of the game you don't want that to happen i'm.

sure you've been in situations that weren't ideal  it happened um but coaching him through that was. again pretty interesting on a personal  level you know because he had never. experienced that and we had good  jokes about it as well it was. it was unbelievable so yeah it's not  it's not kids games over there at all. what an. experience is there any other  intel that you picked up.

you had mentioned people getting shot outside  of a grocery store civilians yeah so there's a. lot of um attacks on civilians happening now  i'm sure some of those stories are making it. to our media right um especially where a lot  of the heavy fighting is and especially where. the russians are starting to run into heavy  resistance this was not happening in the.

beginning of the war this is something that has  developed and it's not by mistake it's not hey. we thought this was happening we thought it was a  military thing and it accidentally was a shelter. it's not that um you know there's one story where  people were lined up outside the store to get. food like a convenience store bread whatever and  russians came there was 12 i think 12 people 10 12. people just gunned them down um the ukrainians  were starting to mark when this started happen.

happening the ukrainians started to mark civilian  centers so like if if a bunch of civilians were. sheltering up in a school  they would mark that school. with something from the like on the ground so they  could see in the air hey there's children here. civilians here whatever and those places are  basically what happened is the ukrainian army is. marking targets civilian targets for the russians  and those places are getting hit now so there's.

so the russians are looking for the  marks where the civilians are being held. and then killing or they're seeing the  marks yeah and not caring right and. you know that gets muddy as well because. for instance the army guys both of the army guy  like units that we were training were living in. schools right they that was like they turned these  schools there's nobody in the school no kids there.

the schools are not functioning right now but  they were using those buildings because they're. big they have open rooms they have bathroom  facilities and all this they were using those as. like makeshift army bases so i guess on one hand  if you're a russian military commander you can say. well yeah we target the school because  it's a military target there's army there.

that to me is fair game there's no kids in that  school right the ukrainian military is not using. human shields to house their military there's  no kids in the school no civilians in the school. but if you clearly see it civilians you  should not be obviously attacking those places. you know and and that is a new tactic that they're  starting to do within the last 40 72 hours they're.

really starting to do that you know wow um  and that's a bad sign that's a real bad sign. and and russia historically  has been known to do that so. um yeah i don't know where that leads i  don't know how involved we get to try and. stop some of that um i'd hope our diplomats are  speaking to the russians and saying hey you know. it's not a red line but don't do that kind of  stuff because that changes everything i think.

yeah that definitely changes it yeah and there's  there's a lot of a lot of that happen and you know. that's going to be a good way to break  those people because the ukrainians. right now one thing that both zach and i  still talk about and noticed right away. was how passionate the people are for the  country and how much they want to defend it. everybody you know i i talk about that town we  were in everybody's helping in the war effort.

everybody right it's like an old school movie  it's like a world war ii story um from the oldest. to the youngest are helping some how for the war  effort again i i mentioned the tv is very positive. and inspiring to the people and they're getting  great results right they're they're doing great. with the javelins they're blowing up russian tanks  the gypsies have all kind of they have a tank. battalion now these gypsies right for stealing the  tanks i mean it's it's very rare very motivational.

and i'm sure that's helping the boys  on the front get the job done right. but russia sees that obviously and you know you  start attacking civilians especially behind their. staff if you notice they're starting to or at  least what i'm hearing i don't know if they're. saying this they're starting to attack these  civilian centers behind the lines behind the front. so with a missile they're going over the front  and hitting people in the rear damn which you're.

not doing that by mistake yeah if it's at  the front and you think you're attacking a. certain building and you miss and you accidentally  hit civilians okay we can talk that happens. but now you're hundreds of miles away from the  front blowing up this building or that building. or you know that's per that's done on purpose  yeah and that's not good if that's being done on. purpose and that i think could really you know  i'm talking to some people uh every day and um.

that's very troublesome for them that's making  them cry as they're talking to me right that's. affecting the people obviously um so yeah  hopefully that gets cleared up and somebody can. talk some sense into the russians like look hey  if you want to fight fight right but don't do that.

i don't even know what to say to that  you know it's unbelievable it's it's. i just don't see anybody holding them accountable. yeah and and again we've talked  a lot on a couple of examples. of this like it's a lot of talk and here's a  good thing but then also brings a bad thing right. this is one of those things because the russians  or the ukrainians are doing so well at defending.

their country and fighting the russians that is  causing or it's making russia use these kind of. tactics so then what do you do if you're the  ukrainians do you back off i hope to god our. you know look i don't work in the government i'm  not a diplomat but i'd hope they're not telling. the ukrainians back off so that russia stops doing  this yeah because then you back off you let them.

advance you know i think as you're mentioning  we should be a lot tougher on russia. i mean i think we should always should be  tough i mean it's tough you know i mean. not even just the us but even europe i  mean they've allowed themselves to get 40. of their gasoline from russia and so if russia  cuts that we were in germany germany gets i. think 100 of their oil from russia yeah so  i mean what are they going to do nothing. they're not going to do anything right because  they're reliant on russia you know i mean and now.

i mean you see our fuel prices saudi won't even  pick up the phone for us imagine though they will. not even pick up the phone for the united states  of america yeah i mean and what's funny about this. i say funny um you know when i back in  my day when i was running and gunning. i i didn't deal with any of this no right  i was doing that job and you know a trigger.

puller go kick this door in this patrol that  whatever right now dealing with it on this level. is very different and like i said i'm  not a diplomat but i'm working with these. people i'm working with this network we're  doing this job now that we've stumbled into. and it's complicated it's it's you know it's  you think i mean we think about all the time.

zach and i are constantly checking in what about  this how does this change things we just heard. from this guy about whatever you know my mind's  full enough and now it's full of this stuff and. and you know it would be easy it's not my it's not  my country it's not my mission it is now but you. know i could pull the plug and forget it i suppose  but it's just a snowball man it just keeps getting.

bigger and more involved and changes every  day it's very weird to be on this end of it. i haven't been on the other end that doesn't  get to interact with with that at all it's. very i don't know it's very interesting but it  keeps the head spinning for sure sounds like it. well let's take a break and then when  we come back we'll kind of get into.

your non-profit and some of the other stuff  you've done and done and and wrap this up. so.

all right mark so let's get in we covered  a lot on ukraine pretty much your whole. experience over there are the diplomats  the intel you're getting on the ground. let's move into your non-profit what you  guys have been doing and if i correct me if. i'm wrong but isn't this just now a 501c3 yeah  so the uh we the status is pending obviously.

government everything takes a little  while but yeah we're uh it started off. it's pretty recent fairly recent when  the afghanistan pull-up was happening. i was working with a team or was working  yeah working with a team to go over there. and help with some stuff over there we  didn't have an organization or anything. like it like like we do now and so i was down  in virginia beach had taken some meetings about.

going to afghanistan came home from those  meetings and it was when the hurricane ida was. about to hit so i just got back off the  flight and was sitting kind of watching tv. getting settled back into being home and was  following the hurricane coverage you know i. like watching that kind of stuff on tv when the  disasters come to keep up with what's happening. and um my wife at the time was five months  pregnant so part of me was like how am i gonna.

tell her that uh going to afghanistan she's not  she's not gonna care well she's gonna care but. my wife kinda she knows what she married you know  and uh i always say i don't ask i just tell but. it's not bad i'm not a [ __ ] like that it's  more she gets it yeah you know what i'm saying. so okay i'm gonna have to tell her i might get a  bit of a near beaten but uh i have to tell her i. was just sitting there watching the coverage  and they were talking about the hurricane.

and i'd never really done any  humanitarian type stuff before right and. i text one of the guys he's uh he's one  of the guys on our team he's uh a former. albanian special forces guy he's a savage  right i mean he's one of those legendary just. savage guys and i text him i say hey what do  you think about going down to the hurricane and.

getting involved right in the beginning like when  people really need help you know like just going. down there and throwing it at the hurricane  and helping people and he just texts back yes. i didn't tell him when i didn't tell him what i  didn't say how many days i just basically said. you want to go help yes so now  i go all right well you can't. turn a guy like this away we're going rounded up  couple other guys the same kind of way that we did.

with ukraine [ __ ] quickly you know planned  to step out the next day then early morning. and i had most of it planned with the guys set up  before i went to my wife so i go to her and i say. hey me and a couple of guys are gonna  go down to the hurricane so when this. thing hits we're gonna start helping people  she was okay and i was like okay like that.

she was well i thought you're gonna  tell me you're going to afghanistan. so i was so she goes on you go to the hurricane  so i was easy easy conversation there right and. i didn't even tell her about afghanistan she  didn't know why i went to virginia beach um. i think she obviously she had a suspicion but  yeah so she was very happy to kick me out the door. uh so we went and we you know we had no we had  a plan we just got in trucks and drove south.

that was the plan until it rained wow  um and when we got there halfway down. my wife sent an app and said hey have you guys  seen this app i can't remember what the app is we. basically was in a disaster area you can. fill out this app it creates a ticket hey  i need help i'm stuck i whatever right. and we start looking at like  hey this thing we could use this. not for that purpose of going and helping  those into but we used it to see where the.

mass amount of tickets are makes sense do you get  what i'm saying like we're not going through these. individual things and coming and getting your  cat out of a tree or doing this or doing that. we want to see where all this [ __ ] is  happening we couldn't get into that town um. well the i can send you some pictures as well  if you want to post them the whole overpass and. ramp completely underwater uh to go to this area  it's about 11 miles from um new orleans couldn't.

get there there were semi trucks under water the  trailers under the water and uh so okay we don't. know what we're doing we don't know where we're  at let's go to new orleans we went to new orleans. stop right outside the superdome it was  like zombies zombie apocalypse nobody. on the streets bone dry right bone dry the  power was out so everything was kind of dark.

and it was very creepy it was like  you wouldn't know the hurricane. was there obviously we learned that since katrina  they've done a lot to the new orleans area to. protect that from that happening again because  obviously that was horrendous what happened there. and in my opinion it seems to be whatever they've  done in new orleans has been to the detriment of. some of the surrounding areas because we found  a back way into that town that we couldn't get.

into um it was i think 38 miles out of our way we  had to go around it was a a town called laplace. and it ended up being one of the worst hit  areas in hurricane ida we didn't know that. at the time we just saw that these tickets were  there we went there helping some people in the. water we got into the town helping some people  in the water and and you know trying to get away. of the land we the governor was going there to  do a photo op we were on the outskirts of town.

saw this commotion at this gas station there was  a cbs guy there running this cbs guy and we're. in his ear tell us this where can we do this  how's that going he gave us the whole layout. of everything that was happening in that area and  it was like you know it's kind of like some of the. stuff we talked about with ukraine if you're  just doing the thing you run into opportunity.

do you know what i mean the chances of  us if we could have got off that ramp. that the couple hours before we  never would have ran into that guy. you know what i'm saying so just the fact that  we were trying to do stuff we could have also. said well can't get into that town let's  go somewhere else but you run into that guy. cbs news guy who knows everything  that's happening in that area. nipping in his ear he gives us all the information  now we know what we're doing now we know where to.

go who needs help what kind of help they need and  we just start hitting the town you know we were um. we did a lot of stuff we were clearing roads  for ems they were running into problems with um. you know say a fire truck right and there's a  giant tree in the middle of the road they're. not going to take care of it for a couple of  reasons they can't have that truck go down. and they can't get themselves hurt trying to get  to the emergency so they just don't go or they.

try and find another way so it's okay we'll  help you we'll go on a ahead of you and get. the chainsaws and start clearing roads and doing  this and so they can move uh cutting people out of. houses we had a couple people trees had fallen  in their houses and they're stuck in the house. uh so we're we're doing that kind of  stuff there was a family old couple. very overweight i'm talking like four spins  like very obese overweight stuck in the house.

on oxygen all this kind of stuff and a tree had  fallen on their house massive tree it got to the. point we were cutting we estimated 12 to 1600  pound sections of this tree above our heads to. try and get because it was going to keep their  house in they said we've just been sitting here. in the living room and last night the roof started  to cave in well you guys have to get out of here.

and the news guy told us that he said gosh he said  look if you see people here you have to tell them. to leave like people that haven't left tell them  to leave because we can't get emergency services. in here or food or anything to support them so  try and get them to leave well these people in. louisiana are very tough people they're going  through this stuff and they weren't leaving. right this old couple they couldn't leave they  were they were struggling physically to they they. would have not been able to but we tried to get  them out of there like we can't go we don't have.

a place to go and we can't go and we're like all  right well let's try and get the tree off the roof. and we're it's above our heads we're up  on ladders we're tying ropes to this thing. one bad move and we would have been crushed you  know so we start doing some of that stuff um. getting food and water to some people just what  we had uh we couldn't give people our gasoline. because we needed it and we ran into a problem  with gasoline because there was one gas station in.

the town and that turned into like uh the cantina  from star wars as well it was very uh rough there. because it was the lifeblood of the town and  they were there you know the gas lines were. i think one day we sat in a gas line for four  hours to try and get fuel and we had brought fuel. and then it got to the point where as days went  by no electricity there was no fema there was no. red cross in that area when we were there three  four days go by and people don't have food they.

don't have water they don't have electricity and  they don't have gas our fuel supply was getting. low and because what we would do is we would for  security reasons we would stay outside the town. on the outskirts and then just punch in to do  some work and then we'd go back we we basically. took over an abandoned kidney dialysis building  and just kind of set that up as our little base. of operations and we you know had a watch and  punched out at night and then punched out and.

did stuff during the day we're running out of fuel  though it got to the point where if we can't get. fuel on this day we need to leave because the  closest place to get fuel was 160 miles away. so we're doing the math on how much  fuel we have and we don't want to become. part of the problem so we couldn't get fuel there  was no fuel coming into the town that day so we. had to leave and you know we had done a bunch of  good stuff there um but by the as the week went on.

just society was deteriorating because of no  food no water no electricity and people were. pretty desperate so we got home we drove all  the way home we arrived home at like 6 a.m. a couple hours sleep and by noon we had a plan to  go back down i just text the guys and said let's. go back and do like a food drop kind of thing so  we got another truck a couple other guys rented. trailers and we're going down i-55 from chicago  to louisiana hitting walmarts on the way right.

well i think we stopped at five walmarts in four  or five different states and we just walked in. and said i said i need to speak to the manager  nobody's in trouble everything's good just need. to speak to a manager manager comes i said okay we  need pallets of water yeah there's cases of water. back there i said look ma'am you're saying cases  i'm saying pallets okay so they were fantastic.

though you know getting us all the stuff um and  then we went we're like food we're taking food all. right well what food how how are we taking food  we decided on the chef boyardee pool top cans. yeah of all the stuff they make spaghetti  meatballs really all these are because it's. easy you pull the top you know you need a fork  you just eat out the can so we raided the shelves. i'm sure that day that we did that to those  five walmarts if you were in the inventory.

management section of corporate you're thinking  you know the alarms are going off right because. we rated everything and we had raised some money  before we stepped off we opened the gofundme like. i said we didn't have an organization yeah we  were just doing it through us we had a gofundme. and people were donating and we have a you know  my jujitsu academy in chicago is is large and. great people and and they did a great job of  getting the word out and we you know we're.

getting donations so but i told the guys before  we stepped off i said look this is my thing. if nobody gives us a dime i'll take the hit  that will be my credit card wow right i'm not. not asking anything of these guys except for their  time and their and their effort you know i put it. all on me but i believed people would support what  we were doing and they did it was great and so we. were able to get all that stuff we filled the  trailers and uh and i kept hitting the walmarts.

and it was funny because again we're just doing  this on personal credit cards my credit cards. are locking up i'm on the phone with somebody in  indonesia somewhere trying to get them to unlock. my because i'm in different states i'm doing  what a criminal would do going right down the. highway into all these different states hitting  item limits hitting dollar limits on purchases. and i'm on the phone outside screaming like on  what we need to verify so i'm like you're not. verifying that i'm kicking off right it was it  was so funny and then we get down there and we.

went back to that area where the um gas station  was because everybody went to that gas station a. lot of shady stuff happening at that gas station  um even with the local authorities like the. police would go inside and get food and all this  kind of stuff but outside people couldn't go in. a lot of shady stuff going on you know  he had good people desperate people um. and we stayed there and we did a food drop there i  think we were handing out water and food for nine.

hours it was 106 degrees heat index and we were  non-stop there and it was it was great because. people were in that gas line they had gas that  day and i just walked right into the gas station. i said here's what we're doing we're not going  to interfere with people getting gas we're going. to set up out by the street and do you guys  need any food and these people looked at me. like they couldn't believe it they they  had no she they said look i've never.

i haven't eaten all week and she's in  a gas station full of food and drinks. it's very strange yeah that's kind of odd and  they weren't letting anybody go into that gas. station to get stuff all the pharmacy like  walgreens type stuff cvs were all boarded up. because people were looting throughout the week  and all this yeah it was a very strange situation. but we just sat there for nine hours and handed  food out i mean my hands and feet and arms were.

all swollen like with the heat and and just i  mean pictures of my hands it's like my fingers. were sausages we just it was nonstop we never took  a break and we we just did that and then we when. we were done it was dodgy getting out of there  because we only had so much food and so much water. and again after nine hours and i saw we were  getting low towards the end of our drop and. uh i see all the cars still and i'm like might be  dodgy getting out here and we had to do the whole.

wrap everything up and punch you know it would  have been nice to kind of sit there and savor. that moment but it's pretty dangerous at that  point because people were pissed i mean we were. handing out food and water and when we  had none left people were getting angry. you know which is i mean it's desperation right  so then we got out of there and uh came home and. stuff and i started thinking i was like you  know what we have the right type of people. the military guys we have and the support  people that we have like we can do something.

with us like we can keep this going and we  can help people right we we can do all the. stuff that either people can't do or won't  do right in those kind of situations that. was the first one that was the first one yeah  and um so my business partners and i started. putting some stuff together to try and  create a and and turn it into something.

and then we started helping out with the  guys from save our allies with the afghans. uh we were focused mainly on fort mccoy  wisconsin we would do clothing runs up there. and take a bunch of supplies up there for  them spend long weekends up there working. in the kind of afghan villages connecting with  people and it was kind of messy up there you. know they have what an undertaking that is  with with those guys um you know and they've.

done a fantastic job and and it was great of  them to kind of because i came in i said look. kind of selfishly i said i don't want to come up  here and volunteer for save our allies i don't. want to work for you i want to work with you on  the stuff and they were very receptive to that and. they enabled us to do that and helped us and and  we worked alongside their um volunteers and with. the team rubicon guys that were up there with the  82nd airborne and there was an army engineering.

company i think that was up there too and then  some of the state department people but that whole. the military the ngo and the state department. intermingling is uh difficult to navigate and  again i i don't have a background in ngo type. stuff so that was a good way to learn that there's  a lot going on when you start working at that kind. of level but that's that was a great experience  and then we were so we were doing that and then.

november came in november was the the thing that  happened with my daughter right so long story my. daughter had a brain tumor and we found out  in basically 20 minutes she needed to have. the first two brain surgeries like out of nowhere  and my wife was eight months pregnant at that time. so we started dealing with that and you know  at the same time trying to really create.

something on this ngo side for overwatch  found where was now overwatch foundation. obviously i took some time away from kind of  being out in the field and and and doing some of. the hands-on stuff for obvious reasons daughter  with brain surgery four years old and then uh. new baby coming but um once that  kind of cooled down we start you know. continuing to grow the thing working on raising  money and how to do that how to do that properly.

and effectively um and just creating contacts  and all that and then the ukraine thing popped. up and so all the humanitarian stuff we've been  doing has been through overwatch foundation. and you know it's still our 501c3 is pending  you know we have a good team that helped us on. the legal side working all that stuff out and yeah  just looking forward to the future and and having.

that infrastructure within that organization to  allow us to do more of this kind of stuff because. we have we have the guys that can get it done so  let's go you know i mean yeah man that's amazing. yeah i never thought of doing anything like this  i never you know i never had a plan to do that and. it's just working you know we can we  can make a difference with stuff and. we're gonna we're gonna keep going with it how's  your daughter she's good yeah i mean she's uh.

she's incredible she's uh she's probably the. the best human i've ever met you know and i have  other kids but there's something special about. that little girl and she still is in her  physical therapy and pushing through all that. and you know it's the thing that's that's  tough about it is it's a constant thing. right i mean you know i think about i tore my  pec a year ago and i had a year-long recovery.

that surgery had to reattach it to my humerus  and i did all the physical therapy for a year. but then once it's healed it's healed it's over  right my pick now is better than before i tore it. with this she can god willing be great for  the next five years and then heaven for bed. something could pop up again so every win is a  win for now yeah and you don't know you know for. tomorrow but you know i and i and i told my wife  i said you know i mentioned this to you too i said.

this stuff happens to people and it's better that  it happens to us than somebody else because we can. take it you know it's enough to break people  something like that i mean can you imagine. so yeah it's uh you know and and the ukraine  thing's tough because now i'm halfway across. the world or all the way across the world in  a war zone and you know families at home and.

there's heavy stuff happening at home with that  with that it's like you know why do you do that. why don't you just stay home with the family  but you know part of being a father and you know. is being an example and and she knows that we  went there she's friends with yuri's daughter. you know my daughter's four yuri's daughters  three and uh she knows that you know dad went with. with me as dad to help him wow that's powerful and  she'll know as we continue to do this stuff and.

you know it's just a good way to be an  example for for the kids right you know so. yeah so that's where we're at and we're just  trying to you know it's weird the hurricane thing. just kind of fell on the lap and and and we're  going to continue to do that god you know heaven. forbid there's any more hurricanes i hope there  never is but um that affect people like that but. you know we'll be there to help and do what we can  and the ukraine thing fell on the lap as well and.

you know i i this is the kind of thing we're  gonna do when these things pop up we'll pop in. you know um another thing that we're really  doing with the foundation is we're using veterans. guys who you know are out or you know we  have a couple guys who are more recently out. and it helps them scratch that itch a little bit  being around other veterans doing something that's.

you know doing a mission that's worthwhile helping  people um you know we're not running around trying. to do anything crazy some of the stuff we've  done has been pretty dangerous but it's not like. it's a group of warmongers trying to do something  stupid you know but i can see some of these guys. light up when we're together when we're doing  this stuff and and that's pretty rewarding so.

as we grow again same for the ukraine mission  we're going to be looking for guys to you know. special operators to do some of the crazy stuff  we're doing um military veterans in general that. can help and and civilians support people we  have for the foundation we have a great group of. civilian support people that are very handy very  organized that that are go-getters you know for. for those kind of missions it doesn't always have  to be special operations fits um you know i just.

want to help vets in general and give them you  know a little bit of purpose a little bit of a. goal to be able to help people and use some of  their life skills to to do that you know yeah. man you're doing it's incredible it really  is it's uh you know we're in the beginning. but i think i think there's something there for  sure i think there's something there too i mean. just by hiring veterans and and i mean on top  of all the other stuff you guys are doing that's.

i mean saving lives saving countries see  everything you're doing and then you're also. giving veterans who may be a little lost you  know because it is it's tough to transition. giving them a purpose again and something they can  be proud of again and that's a that's another big. thing that's not really talked about is how do you  find something that you're proud of what you're. doing again after you leave exactly especially a  special operations unit you know yeah i mean i i.

obviously you know i'm not gonna get into it right  now but like yeah i mean i had a struggle kind of. when i got done personally right um just kind  of dealing my life dealing with people what. do i do next and you know i mean you've heard  countless stories like that as well it's it's. difficult and i suppose  there are resources to help. but we don't go and use those resources  until we until we hit the wall right so um. you know it's being able to help with some of that  stuff and and help veterans that's a huge bonus.

that i never even anticipated doing this stuff we  just hey let's get the guys that we have and go. help some people and then you see that side of it  and you're like man this thing just it's just it's. so reward like there it's like a reward snowball  for everybody involved yeah you know as far as the. difference you can make doing something like this  so yeah well before we close it out I just want. to again say thank you for coming and sharing your  experiences and and you know if you're looking to.

get involved the links are below the need guys  they need special operations guys you need. equipment all those links are below and uh  man it's just it's a real honor talking to. you i'm so glad that we could make this happen  on such short notice yeah thanks for having me. and um yeah it you're welcome it's it was truly an  honor so do you know when you're going back over.

we don't know we have a um kind of cursory  plan right now um we're trying to get. funding and raise funds for some of the bigger  stuff that we're looking to do in ukraine but. yeah i mean i don't i don't see how we don't  go back you know i mean they need help so well. i think you're going to get a lot of support  so best of luck to keep doing great things.

you.