This podcast episode delves into the intricate narratives of military service, specifically focusing on the experiences and reflections of veterans. Our guest, Jim, provides a profound account of his journey through the Navy, highlighting significant moments that shaped his life, including his transition from active duty to civilian life. The discussion underscores the importance of community connections and the invaluable support provided by various organizations dedicated to veterans. We explore the multifaceted nature of military service, encompassing both the challenges faced and the camaraderie forged among service members. Ultimately, this episode serves as a testament to the resilience and adaptability of those who have served, while emphasizing the continued need for dialogue and support within the veteran community.

Takeaways:

• This podcast serves as an invaluable platform for veterans, their families, and supporters to share their stories.
• The importance of community connections and support systems for veterans is emphasized throughout the discussion.
• Jim recounts his diverse experiences in the Navy, highlighting the significance of adaptability and resilience.
• Listeners gain insights into the challenges faced during military transitions and the ongoing support available through various organizations.
• The episode underscores the necessity of awareness regarding the mental health resources accessible to veterans.
• Jim's narrative illustrates the profound impact of military service on personal growth and life choices post-service.

Co-Host & Production Team

Host: Aaron Q. Seibert

https://linktr.ee/aqseibert

Retired Navy Chief Corpsman, Purple Heart recipient, Combat Action Ribbon recipient, veteran advocate, and board member of the Veterans Transition Resource Center.

Co-Host: James "JB" Brown

United States Coast Guard Veteran.

Veterans Transition Resource Center (VTRC)

Producer: Brian Colburn

https://linktr.ee/Bcolburn

I'm.

Hey, welcome to Combat Vet Vision.

This is a platform for our veterans, Combat veterans, sponsors, supporters, volunteers, family veterans, first responders, a whole bunch of different things.

So, hey, you know, this is a great platform for us to kind of be able to talk about things that.

It's our story, it's our life, it's our situation and whatever it might be.

And there's a lot of things that go involved, involved in that.

There's a lot of non profits out there doing incredible things, a lot of businesses, doing a lot of help and support for veterans and, and the community as a whole.

And so when you look at society and everything that's going on, it's important to be connected.

And these connections that we've made in our, in our life really kind of matter.

Really great things have happened and bad things, too.

A lot of bad things are happening all the time.

And it's something that we need to address and constantly keep aware of and be vigilant of and talk about and, and, and engage in.

I'll be back to talk a little bit later in a segment on a lot of different events kind of kicking off and things that are going on.

But my guest today is Jim esq, a good buddy of mine.

We, we go way back.

But he was a SK1 when he got out of the military.

He didn't retire, but he did eight years and served.

And he, he always gave me some really good advice and different things and just, just to see him navigating his life was super important to me.

So I wanted to bring Jim on to tell his story and kind of capture, capture, just kind of a Navy story that's just really good and, and his life and his transition and different things of that nature.

So, Jim, welcome to the show, brother.

Good to have you.

Hey, can you hear me?

No, no sound.

Huh?

No sound.

Okay, tell your story.

I kind of can hear you.

No, not at all.

Hey, tell your story.

We can hear you.

Still not at.

Hey, we're going to try to fix his, his com, but I'm just going to send him a text to tell him to just go ahead and tell the story and we'll go that way.

Still no volume.

Guys, can you hear me?

All right.

I can't hear a word you're saying.

That's okay.

Like here.

I don't.

I, I just text you.

Go ahead and tell my story.

Yeah, I wouldn't know where to start.

I was, what, 17, dropped out of high school, decided to want to go in the Navy.

So I got my parents signature, you know, they signed to get me in.

Navy took me in.

But it made me take a GED before I went to boot camp because like I said I dropped out of high school in my junior year.

It was a what, 12 week long course.

And when I got out I was guaranteed an A school.

So I ended up, I was going to be an electronics technician but I didn't have a good enough math background for the, for the what was required.

So I switched to a storekeeper.

So I went to an SKA school, went completed the SKA school and was this and after that they go where would you like to go?

And I go anywhere but the west coast.

So seeing as I was raised here in Southern California, they put me on a ship in long beach, the USS Gridley, which was a DLG at the DLG21 at the time.

She's been decommissioned and scrapped.

But I don't I.

So that was my first.

Why do you see that was my first assignment or what do you want to call it?

Went on board as an SVSA.

Seems like my first year I seemed to be always in trouble and I ended up getting busted out of supply, thrown into deck division and in deck division I ended up getting assigned to the boat crew and my duty, my workstation ended up being the motor whale boat and they taught me how to drive it.

Did all sorts of fun stuff and we ran around Long beach and did all the fun stuff like you would normally do with all the training and exercises and all, all that stuff.

July of 73 we left for a Westpac, went to, stopped off in Hawaii, then went to Guam and then to the Philippines.

And from the Philippines to off the coast of North Vietnam we did North Star.

We were one of the Piraz ships there and we also plane guarded for aircraft carriers.

Spend like 45, 50 days out there at a time, then come back into the Philippines for a little time in to replenish and do stuff a little R and R for us.

Went back out, went back over to the Gulf of Tonkin again sitting off a Haiphong harbor and you know a few little trips back and forth doing that.

The Liberty ports we hit at the time besides the Philippines we went to Hong Kong and we went to one of the ports in Japan which was nice, but most of it was just the Philippines.

Did all that fun stuff and.

We.

It playing garden for the carriers was Very kind of unique because you got to stay behind a carrier, follow them.

So you don't really.

If you're steering the ship, which I did, a lot of you don't have a regular course to, to, to steer.

They just tell you steer by Siemens.

I follow the carrier.

And we did.

And that was actually quite entertaining because you never knew what they were going to be doing or what, whatever.

One of the carriers, the USS Kitty Hawk, on our last day on the line put on an air show for us.

I'm at the port lookout on the, on the bridge wing and I actually look down into the cockpit of an aircraft.

I think it was an A7 flying, flying next to us and below where I was on the ship.

Quite fun, quite interesting.

You go, that guy's crazy.

I thought we were so.

So we came back to the States, went back into Long beach and in 73 the ship went up to Hunter's Point for an over major overhaul.

During that time, seeing as I was, I did go through SKA school and I was in deck division.

And when you're in an overhaul you have one group of guys that are assigned from different divisions that goes through all the inventory and all the, all the spare parts on board the ship.

You go through all that.

So as soon as I was that way, the deck department divided to put me in this operation which they called a SOAP team.

And while I was there I had the opportunity to take a third class exam and I went ahead and tech and went for the Sk3 Sk3 test.

Passed.

So I was back in supply when everything was done.

Then after leaving Hunters Point, we went down to San Diego and we were home ported out of there for a while and doing all of our little running around.

But then I what in 74, August of 74 I was getting short, due to get out at the end of November.

And of course the career counselor comes up to me and goes, hey, trying to talk me into reenlisting it.

And I looked at him seriously and said, I ain't staying in this Mickey Mouse canoe club for nobody.

So okay, fine.

Next day he comes up to me and he goes, hey, I got you some different orders.

If you wanted to reenlist, you can go to Australia, Spain, Italy or England.

I said, ooh, Australia.

Found out it was Harold H.E.

Holt, Harold E. Holt Radar station in the northwest corner of Australia.

I said no, because there is nowhere around there.

I ended up going to England for two and a half years.

50 Sailors on an air force base 65 miles north of London.

Oh my God, I loved it.

I did not want to come home.

I ended up being the cargo coordinator for the seven outlay and naval stations that we have throughout the uk Made second class while I was there.

Just, it was fun.

The English people were so nice to us and friendly.

There was one instance that was kind of funny.

We, when, when the navy switched to those freakin's hat and suit and tie uniforms back in the 70s, we ended up having to wear them.

And they have every year a Battle of Britain Day parade in a lot of the major British cities.

So Barry St. Edmunds, we're as a group marching through this with everybody else in the Battle of Britain Day Parade.

When we're all done and over with, we go into a pub to get some drinks.

The guy that owns the pub looks at us because we got those damn coat and tie uniforms on.

He goes, we don't serve the German navy here.

And we're like, no, no, no, we're Yanks.

We're Yanks.

Oh, okay, Free drinks for the rest of the day.

So we were good with that.

But it was, it was a wonderful duty station.

The people are great.

I, like I said, I made second class there.

I actually had a lot of fun.

Got to know some very interesting people.

I even got to know the last flying chief in the Navy.

He was an E9 air traffic controller who was a pilot.

So he was very interesting character.

And when you have the officers catering to this scene, no master chief, there's like, oh, okay, so cool.

But time came for me to depart England in May of 77.

I got orders to a ship out of Norfolk, the USS Trenton, which was an lpd.

I ended up going to the Trenton in May.

Roughly 77 reported on board.

And there was a senior chief, a first class, another second class and a few guys below us.

First couple weeks, the other second class is telling me what to do all the time.

And I ended up saying something just doesn't seem right.

So I go to personnel, found out I was senior to this guy.

I go, oh, really?

So that didn't go over real well with him, but it worked out well.

And it was a fun job, fun trip because there was 450 of us and we carried 800 Marines when we were, when we were loaded out.

So we'd go from Norfolk, or actually Little Creek there by Norfolk, down to Morehead City in one of in the Carolinas and load up a bunch of marines and go off and play war games and stuff like that with them.

We did a Mediterranean.

Excuse me, A Caribbean cruise with them.

So they got to go do their little practicing and stuff.

And it was interesting watching them do it, but I'm glad I wasn't a Marine.

Nothing personal, Aaron, seeing as you worked with them a lot, but it was fun.

It was enjoyable and probably one of the better times of my life when I was in the service.

But the Trenton was fun.

I, I, what ended up happening there is the first class retired.

So it was the senior chief and then me and who was still a second class at the time, and all the other guys.

We never got another first class.

But in roughly July of, no, not July, that was.

Oh, I can't remember what month we left, but we ended up making a Mediterranean cruise in 78 through 79.

That was fun with all the Marines and stuff like that.

And the senior chief ended up retiring during that, I believe, and left me as the LPO for the division, excuse me.

And we're running around the Mediterranean and the Marines are doing a little thing.

And we went into ports like Rota, Tomalin.

No, Malaga, Spain.

We went to Palma de Mallorca.

We did Toulon, France, which is nice, is right there too.

What was it?

Of course, Naples, Italy.

That was fun.

One of the day, one of the times we're there and when we were in Naples, one of the times they had the Holy Shroud on on display in Turin, and I opted not to go see it.

I ended up going and spent a day just wandering around the city of Pompeii by itself.

That was very impressive and very interesting.

Other ports we hit was San Remo and what was the other one?

There was another one and two ports in, in Italy, but we went through the Straits of Messina, which was really cool because that's nice and close.

And during that time, we ended up going to Greece but never got on land because they were, the Marines were doing their war games there, doing their ex as a or exercises, as you want to call them and everything.

So that was pretty much it.

We hung around there, came back left in 79.

We came back to Norfolk and I ended up taking the first class exam and actually passed my first time, which actually I was originally told I didn't make it.

I was a few points shy.

So, okay, fine.

I was looking at the totals when they had them posted, and I go, you guys added wrong.

They looked at it, says, yeah, you made it.

I go, okay, cool.

So I made first class.

And from there it was fine.

We ended up going through an overhaul in Portsmouth.

So, of course, the pulling all the Spare parts and everything off.

We.

I was in charge of all of that.

And so we were in a separate warehouse on shore while the ship was going through the overhaul.

Came time in August for me to either reenlist or get out.

I decided to go ahead and leave because first of all the supply officer was a lieutenant who'd already been passed over twice and me and him did not get along at all.

And I found out that if I would have extended re enlisted, did whatever, I would have been stuck with him for at least another year.

And there's no way I could do that.

And I just said I'm done.

And I was happy to leave.

But I had a, I had a wonderful time.

There was a lot, you get a lot of bad times and stuff like that, but years overall it's a, it's a wonderful experience and probably one of the best things I ever did in my life was going in.

But it's, there's, there's so much and so many stories that happen through that it would take a day to get through all of them, I would think.

But I will say this much in.

I will say this much about my time in England.

So when they have the North Atlantic, NATO cruises or little exercises that they had, all of our ships, mail and cargo came through me.

So I was putting in 18 hour days for quite a.

For a few.

For a couple months straight.

And I remember one time it's robbery, 11 o' clock at night.

And I'm sorting through everything, getting it set out so what aircraft I have to load in the morning and do whatever.

And all of a sudden there's this pair of hands sticking in there, trying to grab stuff and seeing, attempting to help me out.

And I go, I don't give a rat's ass who the F you are.

Get the hell out of my face.

I turned around, it was our skipper.

I'm like, oh, sorry sir.

But he was smart, he was all right.

He says, okay, no problem.

And when that exercise was all done and over with, he called the whole unit to.

Into formation in our hangar and calls me front and center.

And I got a citation for all the work.

So that was actually kind of cool.

But that was just one of those things you go, that could have been a big oops, so what the hell.

But I don't know what else you need to know or would like to know.

Like I said, like I said, I can't hear you.

Yeah, maybe you can't hear me yet.

Yep.

Can you see that?

This is really strange, but what You.

Oh, you wanted what I did afterwards, right?

Didn't you?

Okay, all right, fine.

So I get out of.

I get out of the Navy.

I had my truck in a shop at the time, going, getting repainted.

So I.

For about a week, I kept sneaking back on base to, you know, stay in a room until everything was done.

And the guys would sit there and I'd be like, I was drunk, passed out in the backseat of the cars.

Whenever we came back on base and they wouldn't even bother and just, I'd go wander in.

Then I got everything done, loaded up, left Norfolk, Virginia to drive back to Santa Ana, California.

I did that in two and a half days by myself.

That was fun.

Came back home, wasn't sure what I really wanted to do, but I went over to see people that I considered my family.

And at that time I.

My sister was hanging out with me, so we drove over there and she decided she was going to wait in the truck.

So I went inside to see my friends and my family and stuff and, and I looked out in the courtyard of the apartment complex they lived in and there's this little blonde chick walking around with these little dust mop dogs, Yorkies.

So I go, oh, okay, whatever.

Go outside to get my sister and she's sitting on the ground outside talking to this girl.

So I sit down and start talking them to him and I talked her into going out with me that night.

Even worse, I even told her I was going to marry her.

Guess what?

I did.

So all of that came about and all the other fun stuff.

And about a week after I got back, I ended up going into a job for a real small electronics firm as their warehouse guy.

I was the only.

That was their first hire.

And I set up their whole inventory system and everything else because it was right up my alley as being a storekeeper.

I.

Did that for, God, 30 some years.

Ended up, ended up going out of the warehouse and going into sales and I ended up being in sales and doing that for, like I said, a little over 30 years.

Had a great time and, and I think you mentioned earlier about hobbies and stuff too, right.

So a couple years later for my birthday, my, my brother in law at the time gives me scuba diving lessons.

You know, the sad part about that was, is all the time I spent in the Navy, all the ports everywhere around the world, I'd been.

I didn't dive.

God, I wish I would have now, if I would have, if I.

That would have been wonderful to do in all the places we were it's, it's just amazing.

But I ended up diving for geez, 20 some years and I actually got to a point where I was assisting with courses, classes, students and even instructor candidates and other hobbies are.

I like old British cars.

For some reason I wonder why.

Living in England for two and a half years, I've always been intrigued by history.

Things like military weapons have always intrigued me.

And so I, I've got a.

Let's just say I have a modest collection of those including bayonets and other things that go with it.

I didn't mention who dj, never mind my daughter.

Oh, oh, oh, I know what she meant.

My daughter just texted me.

I guess she's watching.

Hello Jennifer.

When in England, there was one thing I forgot to mention while I was stationed there.

They had on the base there's an Em club and this is in the mid-70s, so the disco era, right.

So there was a DJ always playing in there and I got to go know one of the, one of them and he had a little discotheque there called Lighthouse Disco.

Well we got to be pretty good friends and I ended up being his partner.

So here I am in the Navy, also a part time DJ working at the EM club on base.

Oh my God.

So that was one of the, one of the good aspects.

I will say this much about being in the Navy in England though.

But if we had a show to do and I had duty that night, right.

They just hand me a walkie talkie and go here, if we need you, we'll call you.

They called it community relations which was actually kind of cool.

Definitely.

It looks like might have lost him for a second but yeah, if he comes back on, he'll talk some more.

But you know, it's interesting as Jim tells a story.

You know, he's got two daughters, amazing daughters and two grandchildren from what I understand.

Gun advocate and all the things.

I don't know if you can hear me.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, I can hear.

I can actually hear you now.

Great.

Oh sweet.

Oh yeah, great.

That was, that was like weird.

I felt like I was talking to myself for quite a while there.

Hey, that's okay because that's, that's what happens on these things.

But you did great.

You're telling your story.

You're doing all these things.

Hey, you're.

You know, Jen also is on here.

She, she mentioned.

Yeah, he didn't mention that his theme being Blinded by the Lights.

So you know.

Oh well that was my.

That for, for my little mobile.

You actually the best Part about that was, is in England there was outlaying Air Force stations.

Okay.

Air Force bases.

And I would actually, I had a little mobile unit that I could set up and go out with.

And I would go and I would be hired to play the night for the children of all the people stationed on the base and stuff like that.

And that was.

That to me that was so much fun than playing for the, for the people in the.

At the EM Club.

It was just fun.

The kids were more whatever, but it was just, it was a blast.

I had a great time there.

I actually didn't want to leave.

And even my.

The commanding officer tried to talk to the personnel office in Washington or what do you want to call it and tried to get me that to be able to be extended there.

Nope, you're he's needed on a ship.

I go huh, great.

Yeah.

And.

And mechanically you were doing a lot of stuff.

In England you were.

You had a couple motorcycles that you would.

Yes, correct.

And I had a 19.

I remember seeing a picture of your motorcycle.

And there was this big ass shipping crate on the side of the house.

I opened it up and this motorcy in there.

I ended up buying it from the guy that owned it.

And I went all over the place on that thing.

Yeah, it's pretty cool man, that I, I seen the pictures and you know, just an interesting motorcycle to be, you know, for sure back.

You came back and you had an MG one.

I mean MG I've had like I've.

Had between MG midgets and the Austin Healey Sprites.

I've had like nine.

The red one.

Yes, I still have that car.

Same car still runs but I got to pull the engine and replace the clutch and a clutch assembly on it because it finally took a dump.

But you mentioned as soon as I heard your voice come back on where I could hear you, you mentioned my grandkids.

So yes, I ended up marrying Jerry.

We ended up having two children.

I have two daughters.

One's.

The oldest is Jamie.

I have two grandkids with her.

Tinley who's nine and James who's two.

And then my youngest, my youngest daughter Jennifer.

She lives.

Well they.

My oldest lives in Tennessee because my son in law works at Oak Ridge National Labs.

They met in New Mexico when he worked at Sandia.

And then my youngest Is lives in Albuquerque right now, and she's been there for quite a while.

She does quite well.

She just.

She bought her own house a few years back, and she just sold that one and bought another house.

So she's doing quite well.

I'm happy for them.

And I'm.

I'm jazzed that they're both doing good.

No, that's a.

That's amazing.

And that is.

I mean, you're.

You.

You've had a great adventure, you know, and thanks for being in my life for, you know, kind of, you know, guiding me through a lot of Navy kind of, you know, situations that I don't.

I don't get to always hear, because my Navy career was with the Marine Corps, you know, and it's great to have your story get captured here.

And one of the other cool things about you, the web, the weapon stuff, you know, you talked about these things and, you know, a lot of people won't know that I haven't M1 grand, but I also have the M1 grand trainer because Jim gave it to me.

This is a Marine Corps M1 Grand Trainer 22.

It's an 8.

It's an H&R rising M model 65.

It was made between 43 and 44.

And I even know your serial number.

That's right.

But I mean, almost by just right off the top of your head.

You do?

Oh, yeah.

I know a lot of my weapons serial numbers.

I don't.

I know I'm off the top of my head.

And it's in a real.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, that's.

That.

No, these are always amazing stories, and this is kind of a cool thing that you've done.

I know, you know, you've helped me, you know, recognize the guns.

Anyway, but talking about these trainer weapons, a book was just written by some.

One of your buddies that you talked about that about these.

These weapons.

And so, I mean, there's always some really cool things that people.

Oh, yeah, there fully.

It's.

It's what I'm using to.

To prop the phone up so it gets a better angle on me.

But it's a.

It's a book by David Albert and it's on Eugene Risen and his weapons that he made.

And he did some of the models the early in the early World War II, the Marines used when they went to Guadalcanal, they had the rising submachine guns that they all poo pooed.

But the problem with the knowing what I know about the guns is the fact that you have to keep those things clean.

If you don't, they don't operate well.

And yes, go ahead and Guadalcanal is not a clean place.

No, no, no, no.

Well, it's jungling.

What was it, our first attempt at something along that line and going holy.

They, it was something they weren't prepared for, I think, unfortunately.

But they, in the end, they did fine.

But any.

Yeah, I, I, I, I've done so many other things through that.

Yes, I like weapons.

They're fun, and they're a wonderful investment.

That's, that's right.

That's one of the best things for me.

But it's, it's just, it's a nice hobby, and I'm glad that my youngest daughter is a bigger gun nut than I am.

Every time I come up with something, she goes, oh, for me, I go, no, not now.

Maybe later, but not now.

Oh, yeah, no, that's good stuff.

A.J.

What, what is, what is it that you're doing now?

You're retired?

You're just enjoying life.

But I'm retired.

I just, I, I tinker with stuff around the house, and I've got a group of friends that we get together every now and then and do things like that.

The funny part is, is one of them is a guy named Craig Reich who actually writes books on M1 carbines, trapdoor Springfield rifles, and he does the books on the grands and all sorts of fun stuff, which is actually kind of cool.

So that we're actually.

Go ahead.

No, no, go ahead, finish that and then I'll move.

I was gonna say we're actually gonna get together on Sunday because he wants to see this new book I just got, and the guys all want to see the new rifle I just got, that national match one.

So it's, it's what we kind of call the show and tell section.

Right, right.

Hey, you've been, you've been living there.

This is, this is one of my first neighborhoods that I, I moved into in Lake Elsinore.

But you've been living there for almost.

There's only one person older than you there.

That's.

Yeah, I've been in this, I've been in this house for 26 years.

When your house was what, three doors away?

Yeah, three doors over.

And you're planning on moving, you know, you got Jan over here talking about Jamie and Jen, talking about, hey, he's supposed to be moving.

Yeah, yeah, I'm.

I'm expected.

Grandkids.

Yeah.

I want to go to Tennessee.

That's where I want to do, is go to Tennessee because it's beautiful out there.

And compared here to California, it's just a different pace of life.

And the people are a lot friendlier.

There are so much friendlier.

But it's like I've lived in Albuquerque.

I liked it because you have southern part of the state kind of deserty.

Northern part of the state is mountains and everything else.

Well, the only problem is, is there's.

Well, let's just say my ex is there and I don't need to be around that.

No, no, I get that.

That's all right.

Yeah, I just kind of go, you know something, I don't need the aggravation.

I'm too old and I'm.

I'm very happy and comfortable in the way I am now.

And.

And I'm surprised that everything's worked out so well for me.

So how do you explain that?

I've been extremely lucky, blessed, however you want to look at it.

But I've.

I've had a wonderful time.

I've had a good time.

I've done a lot of things that most people don't get to do.

I've actually.

Couple trips to Yosemite.

I have made the hike to the top of Half Dome, which is actually, what, 18 miles, roughly round trip.

That's a hell of a hike to do in one day.

Just, just.

I think the other thing is, is as far as the scuba diving part is, I have never been so relaxed and comfortable sitting on the bottom of the ocean and just sitting there and watching everything around you.

It's quiet, it's peaceful, and, you know, you can do what you want, so.

Definitely.

Definitely.

Well, Jim, hey, it's.

It's awesome to have you on the show.

And I want to say, you know, any.

If anybody wants to get a hold of Jim, you can through me.

If you want to find out more information, if you want to, you know, help with your weapons, whatever it might be.

You know, Jim's always really been helpful to me and, and, And I'm glad that we reconnected.

We haven't talked in a while, but, you know, I look forward to seeing you when I come down to California here pretty soon.

And what, you know, if anybody wants to get a hold of you, if you want to put any information out, you Can.

Or I. I can just link them to you as.

As needed.

You can give my idea.

All right.

Any final words from you?

Other than the fact that I still say, oh, one other thing.

Surprise.

I didn't know.

I found out.

And my medical, for the most part, is covered.

And I'm.

I, like.

That's why I say.

I think the best thing I ever did is what.

I enlisted and went in the Navy, even, or just the service period.

It was.

And I. I guess I was one of the few or one of the guys that made the best of it, and I enjoyed it, so.

And that's such an important thing.

You waited.

How.

How long did you.

Was it from the time you got out to the time that you actually got your benefits that you even went in?

And.

And Jim's one of these guys.

He doesn't want to push for that.

You know, there's.

There's a lot of guys out there, and it's so important that you just make contact with the VA whether you want compensation or.

Or you're probably eligible for it, but I know you're not pushing for that right now, but your medical's covered, and you've gone through some stuff that you needed help with, and.

And the VA's been there for you.

Cataract surgery in both eyes.

I actually had a couple cracked ribs that they took care of, kind of for me.

Yeah, I'm.

I'm pretty much happy and pretty.

You know, I've been lucky, so.

Definitely.

Definitely.

Well, thanks a lot, Jim.

I appreciate you, brother.

And we'll talk more.

I look forward to it.

And if.

If you guys want some more stuff about the weapons, we can get another podcast on that.

So just let me know if that's something that you're totally interested in.

Yeah, no problem.

We'll have Jim go through his weapon stash and talk about these things.

The other cool thing.

Real quick.

Jim, we're real quick.

I know you made it so that the pawn shop in Lake Elsar ended up, you know, getting into the weapon business and some other things, and that's usually really difficult to do in California, right?

Well, it was real quick.

It was one of those deals that I would go into the pawn shop all the time, always looking for just whatever stuff that kind of intrigued me.

I got to know the owner pretty well, and he's, like, going, well, these people are trying to sell me guns and stuff, but I don't know what to do.

I says, she start selling Sorry.

Start selling guns and ammo.

He goes, okay.

And I ended up starting working there.

I worked there for, like, I think close to eight years.

And he now sells guns and ammo, is one of the few dealers in the area.

So in this immediate area, I. I think you got to go, like, 15, 20 miles away to find another gun shop sometimes.

So it worked out really well.

I still go.

Excuse me.

I still go in there.

And he still.

I still go in once in a while to help them out on any questions they have on firearms they don't know what to do with or how to do it or how to.

How to reassemble them or put it or take them apart or whatever.

So it's fun.

It's a.

It's a nice hobby.

And the biggest thing on all of this, on the weapons, especially the old military ones, is I wish these things could talk to me.

I would love to know the history where they've been and what they've done.

That's the big.

That's.

That's the important thing to me.

That's a cool piece.

That is.

Well, thanks, Jim.

Appreciate you, brother.

You take care, buddy.

Take.

And I'll talk to you later.

All right, we'll talk to you later.

So, you know, this podcast has a lot of different dynamics to it, and, you know, I brought Jim on because, you know, he's.

He's a, you know, inspiration to me in a lot of different directions.

Two amazing daughters.

I know him, and, you know, I got to grow up with them a little bit, and it's just.

It's just cool to have people that have served and what they're doing and get their interest, especially the weapon systems and, you know, just getting to know that, you know, if I didn't know something about a weapon.

He actually fixed my mom's gun once.

She had a pistol that was not working, and someone's putting it backwards, so ended up fixing that.

There's just a lot of really cool things that him and I have done, and that's.

And that's the history.

When you listen to his history in the Navy and it.

You know, those are.

You know, this is combat vet vision.

We talk a lot about the combat side of things, but there's so many cool things that we ended up doing to go to foreign countries, going to the E clubs, and, you know, just.

Just the things that he was bringing to.

To the forefront.

It's kind of a magical thought process of all the adventures that we've been on, whether you've been in combat or not it's part of the military way is to go experience other cultures.

And the world's kind of changing into the mosh pod of everybody's culture is blended in there.

I mean, you can't go anywhere, somewhere, most likely, unless you're totally off the beaten path.

Even.

Even then, it's really kind of difficult to find that.

And American music or English music, it's just all over the place.

So to really adapt to some or get some culture, it's getting harder and harder to do that.

But to experience some of these things is just an incredible thing.

You know, I'm just glad that Jim came on and gave us a little insight as to his career and the Navy side of things.

And it's just cool dungarees.

You can see that in the picture.

I've been in those.

I wore those, you know, from boot camp and my first duty station until they said, hey, let's, you know, transition from your Marine Corps green.

I mean, Navy blues, to Marine Corps greens from Gunnery Sergeant Coons.

My first day at the fmss, you know, instructional stuff.

But.

But yeah, I just.

I want to transition real quick into a couple things.

I'm wearing.

Hey, I'm wearing the Yokohama shirt with the.

With the water built emblem, because water built was out and about this weekend, they took a trip up to this whole last week.

They were up in Colorado doing the Pikes Peak Hill climb with a guy named J.T.

Just.

Just some really cool stuff going on with that.

They were on their way back.

If you.

If you look at their stuff, the.

The box truck is broken down a couple times, and Seth is getting under there and fixing it.

And, you know, it's just.

Just cool things.

I mean, these things always happen with.

With road trips and things that you do and old equipment.

You got to get under there and fix things and put them back together.

And, you know, it's just one of those things that worry about and what we do.

And so it's good to see those guys doing their thing.

I want to thank the PTSD foundation of America for all the incredible things that they do for our veterans, making sure that they get that the PTSD support and help.

Six to nine months free for them to go to Camp Hope in Houston, Texas.

Camp Hope is part of the PTSD foundation of America.

It's just the location, the headquarters of and the heart of really, the PTSD foundation of America.

It's all over the United States.

We can send these veterans to it.

Should you have PTSD and you're just dealing with it on a whole different level.

It's combat related and you're truly struggling.

Then let's get you to Camp Hope.

It also runs warrior groups throughout the week for veterans that don't necessarily need Camp Hope but want that camaraderie and things of that nature.

So I'm glad to be part of that.

I run three of them a week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

But there's one every day.

You can look at their website, ptsdusa.org and see that Recon Chief Incorporated.

Thanks for all the stuff you're doing.

Push it out to help the veterans in so many different directions and some possible really cool things coming up in the future.

The Veterans Transition Resource center.

This is where this is being brought to you by.

And it's, it's.

Yeah, it's just coming out from vtrc, which is in, in Las Vegas, Nevada, right off Sunset, right across the street from the airport.

So I get to see that happening all the time.

Planes coming in and landing super low because I'm right there.

But the VTRC Veterans Transition Resource center is here to support the veterans in, in the community of the Las Vegas as well as re getting some VSO support.

Different things of that nature.

And there's, there's a lot of things going on with that.

Just so many really cool organizations out there.

Hey, I look forward to being on Vet Talks.

Vet Talks is coming up on the 17th of July.

Oh no, I'm sorry, 17th of August.

They're doing a really cool thing here in Vegas at the Marine House or right over here at the restaurant for the Marines.

But if you get a chance, check that out, look into that.

It's.

I'm actually looking to be a speaker, so put in my application.

We'll see how that goes.

But I'm looking forward to some things.

So if you want to get on my podcast, I'd love to hear your story.

Love to get you on.

If you're a non profit organization, please get on here.

And then one more thing, you know, like, and share this, put it out there.

You know, it's, it's one of those things.

I don't, I don't always push that out all the time, but I guess that's a super important thing just to get the word out.

And hopefully these stories are inspire veterans, sponsors, supporters, volunteers or family members, whatever it does inspires some sort of story that allows for guys to kind of relate to each other.

And these are all people that can get back on my show for the 10 minute segments.

That I want to keep, keep available for them if they want to discuss anything and talk about stuff.

But it also is a library for our veterans, our those that are suffering.

For them to have kind of a, a relatable story or a relatable path, whatever that might look like or whatever it might mean to you.

It might mean something completely different to you than what I'm thinking right now.

So it'd be great to hear from you.

And hey, thanks for all the shares that are going on out there.

And Angel Figueroa, thank you for always being a fan and helping me out all the way from Texas.

So shout out to you and shout out to Brian in Colorado.

Hit me up earlier.

Always good to hear from you.

Hey, but you know, this, this is pretty much the segment I'm gonna drop it over to Feed Drops.

Brian Colburn, which is on deck here today and he's working behind the scenes outside of the office here.

He's out in the lounge room.

And so he's gonna pop on, he's gonna give me a feed drop.

And Feed Drops is his own podcast.

He analyzes podcasts and does some really cool stuff.

It's cool, quick little five minute, you know, analytics of his stuff.

But I asked him to come on deck and feed drop this because I want to make this a better podcast.

And he might as well do it in front of all of you because maybe some of you are wanting to take on podcasting or get out there and do something live podcast, Dying breed.

Everybody is pre recording their stuff, shining it up and getting it out there.

But the live is really cool.

It's unpredictable.

It's got a lot of things and, and in, in the dynamics, obviously the sound problems that were kicking off.

Brian came in and kind of tuned up some sound right here when I was working.

But he's out there, he's gonna, he's gonna do a feed drop.

Brian, you on deck?

You know, achieve.

How you doing?

Hey, good to see you.

Right outside the office space here.

You know, first off, I want to thank you and the VTRC having me down, hosting me.

I was here yesterday, working in here, working with you again today.

What a great little spot to help veterans transition into this crazy world of civilian life.

If you're in the Henderson, Las Vegas, Boulder City area, this place is for you.

Make a phone call, find them online and reach out and see what they can assist you with if you need assistance.

If you don't need assistance, what can you do for them and other veterans, you know, volunteers are, are the lifeblood of organizations like this.

And, you know, if you served, this is a great place to give back if you're so inclined.

But, Chief, it's been good the last couple of days working with you, man.

Yeah, it has.

You know, and.

And what's really cool is I. I gotta.

I gotta put a shout out, man, because we are so close to this little pub that we walked, and.

And I've never been there.

The vtrc.

I've been coming down here for a while, but you and I went down to the village pub, just right down the thing.

They make their own root beer.

They have steak and eggs for like 12.95 all the time.

You know, I didn't have that, but we.

We ended up getting some fish and chips.

And then again back there today, I, you know, I had a sandwich and some.

Some chips, but it's just.

I don't know.

Sometimes it's really great to check out these things, break some bread with you.

You come back over here, share some time, learning different processes, especially processes that are going to help me with my podcast and help me just navigate life a little easier.

AI tools are becoming such a huge part of everybody's life, but the.

The things that they can do are so much beyond maybe the thoughts that you might even be having to be surprised.

And Brian's always there to show it to me and kind of guide me through that.

Thanks a lot for doing that.

I mean, we.

We made a new workflow for the My show notes and just putting that together, because sometimes it takes me about three or four hours to do all the stuff that I need to do for the show, whether it's creating the artwork and working with my wife on that.

She.

She helps me develop a lot of that, but I'm getting AI to just tune it up in a matter of two minutes, you know, give it some.

Some words and.

But sometimes it'll create some weird stuff, too, and it's like, no, no, no, let's go back to the drawing board.

So, Brian.

Yeah, go ahead, brother.

That's the thing a lot of people assume content creators are using AI to create content.

Yes, there is some of that out there.

But as a content creator, half of your time should be promoting each and every episode.

And utilizing some of the AI tools that are on the market to help reduce that amount of time is phenomenal.

That gives you more time to prep for your next guest or reach out and get, you know, better guests, different guests, new guests scheduled to be on the show.

So it's one of those Things you don't have to have it create content for you.

But reducing the amount of labor it takes to produce a show each and every week is, Is huge.

And, you know, Chief, Chief rolls his eyes at me, but I'm like, if you do this, you'll save three seconds every time you do it.

And it's like, three seconds, what's the big deal?

Well, you do it 42 times a day.

How many times a week?

You know, think of that's, that's time you could be spending with, you know, loved ones or time down at the village pub enjoying a nice freaking awesomely brewed root beer.

And by the way, I'm going to be down there after this grabbing a sandwich before I head out of town.

But it's, it's those things that can truly help a podcaster relax and take some of the stress and burden off of creating a piece of content like this week after week after week.

And, you know, if people need help with that, they can definitely reach out to me.

There's tons of things we can do.

I.

Understanding the right tool to do the right task is huge.

I used to use chat GPT and it saved me about an hour a day.

It still took an hour a day, five days a week.

Now that I moved the entire process over to Claude, it takes me about 20 minutes a day, five days a week, which is huge.

That's 40 minutes a day that I can give to another client or come in here and work with a customer.

And I mean, it's, it's phenomenal.

But let's get on to the feed drop.

A lot of people jump online.

They download a one page how to be a podcaster and they go to TEMU or some shop and buy a.

A podcaster's kit for $43.

We've all heard the term you get what you pay for.

And having decent equipment is a, in, in my world, a must.

But one thing a lot of people don't think about, it's like, I have a mic and I have an audio interface.

Now I need cables, and a lot of people will buy a cheap cable, and that can hurt you, especially with audio.

You want balanced cables, which is huge.

And not that that was the issue today, but that is something I went into check while Chief was running the show.

I was interrupting him and, and playing with cables.

That's.

That's a huge deal.

And yes, they are a little more expensive, but they're going to save you so much more time and make you sound so much better.

Having the right Equipment is.

Is paramount, especially if you're going to be doing this consistently.

With that having been said, there's still going to be technical issues, especially during a live show.

And you work through them, don't draw attention to them.

Everybody knows you sound like crap.

Or everybody knows somebody can't hear somebody because they're watching.

So we don't need to bring attention to it.

We just work through it and, you know, get it done.

For example, Chief was texting the guest, so the guest knew what he wanted him to talk about.

So there's always a workaround.

We also have private chat in the platform we use.

There's contingencies.

Worst case, we pull them down.

I jump on the phone and work with him.

Why Chief carries the show, talking about the cool stuff PTSD Foundation's doing or Warrior Built or any of the other organizations that he works with.

And, Chief, good seeing you.

Last week, I think it was at the golf tournament.

Yeah, yeah, that was.

That was.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You met me in Corona.

Yeah, I popped down and hung out a little bit, which was very cool.

And thanks for the cigars.

Most important.

Yeah, I run golf.

Yeah.

The I Room golf tournament was a really awesome deal.

You know, brought a couple of our veterans together.

Me, Sean, and.

And Jake McMillan, and, you know, just to hang out and.

And the.

The view from up there was phenomenal.

Yeah, it was a beautiful day, blue sky.

I mean, the grass was beautifully green, a little bit of a breeze, a little bit warm as.

As the day progressed.

But people were out there golfing for charity.

And a lot of the charities you work with, Chief, benefited from that, which is phenomenal.

And, you know, again, back to volunteers.

It's people like you and Jay.

Jake, who's with you?

Jake McMillan.

Jake McMillan.

You know, volunteering their time to go out there and represent the PTSD foundation is, again, paramount.

But let's see.

Back to the show.

Great story.

I.

You know, a lot of people, when they talk to veterans, it seems like they want the combat story.

And I remember a story this.

He was a respiratory therapist I worked with when I used to run a rescue ambulance in LA county, and he was a sailor, and he got into a lot of trouble.

And he shared a story where they have him, like, on a swing harness hanging off the side of the ship, painting it gray, underway, and the seas were so rocky that he would get pulled away from the boat and just kind of hang out, come back to the boat, brace himself and try to paint really quick.

And it's.

It's the Silly stuff like that, that really builds the bonds between, between us because he was painting a ship underway, I was painting rocks white or sweeping the desert back into the desert because there was nothing else for us to do that day.

And it's, it's that silliness.

And yeah, we're complaining and griping the entire time, but it's, it's those, it's those moments that really builds the camaraderie.

And actually tomorrow, Friday, I think Friday, we've got four guys.

We none of us serve together, but we were all in the depth program together, delayed entry program.

We all joined the Marine Corps.

We all went different directions.

The four of us are trying to get back together.

One's going to be in town and, and just to break bread and talk about our collective Marine Corps experiences not having served together.

But we hung out together, you know, every week, sometimes daily, waiting to go to boot camp.

And again, it's those bonds that being built.

So it's.

Stories like that were shared today are phenomenal.

And yeah, there's always the silliness and there's always that one zero that's got a chip on his shoulder and wants to make life hard because he doesn't understand what true leadership is.

My words, that, you know, can make people's lives miserable.

However, you know, we work through it, we get through it.

Jim reenlisted and got to go hang out in England and, and meet a wife and have two beautiful kids.

You know, I mean, how that wouldn't have happened if he wouldn't have enlisted, most likely.

You know, I mean, it's, it all comes full circle, these crazy adventures, as you speak to, you know, we all live them and, and we never know where it's going to lead and what relationships it's going to bring into our life.

And, and it's phenomenal.

So enough about me rambling about that, but great episode, great guest.

Love the story.

Take care of his guns that he gifted you, man.

Yeah, I'll see you shortly, Chief.

Hey, thanks a lot, Brian.

Hey.

So, yeah, thanks a lot for all the guests that have been on the show, and thanks a lot for all you that are listening.

And hopefully this means something to you, and if it, if it resonates with you, if there's something that you, you know, your story doesn't have to be epic or anything of that nature.

You know, these are all stories.

And, but what, what's important is, you know, I really try to focus on transition, too.

I think that's, that's one of the biggest things and your pathway, because, you know, my pathway is not your pathway.

And you know, as much as I, you know, I'm taking pathways, you know, all of our pathways are undetermined and we just need to kind of be where we're at, where we're at and when we're at there.

And so being there and embracing with this, the system, embracing the situations that come, that's, that's how, that's how it works.

And I think that's an important thing.

Everybody needs to be trying to do things a little bit better.

We, we can always make ourselves better, but better for our lives, better for our families, better for everybody and society as well.

And if we, if we do that, then it works out pretty good.

But I love having the guests on here.

I love talking about it and, and you know, letting the story go.

I need to be better about asking some questions, especially when calm is up.

But when calm's down, we'll re, reevaluate calm and go through other, the life support system to make calm work.

I always love saying that, saying, don't worry, I'm going to reroute calm through the life support system and we'll have calm up.

And we could do that now in today's technology.

But hey, until next time, I always appreciate everybody.

Strength and honor out the only way.

And we need nothing more.

The only way together forever.

That's for sure.