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Darkhorse From US Marine AJ Pasciuti Host Of The Podcast Combat Stories · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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Speaker 1: It's a podcast network. Ero dot net A r r
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Speaker 1: oe dot net. Every day you sit in that car,
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Speaker 1: I want you to have the power of choice, and
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Speaker 1: one of those choices could be missed opportunity. I speak
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Speaker 1: with thousands of people year after year. Not all of
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Speaker 1: them make it to a podcast. Why because it became
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Speaker 1: a missed opportunity. So what I do is is that
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Speaker 1: I asked the questions hoping somebody will locate it and
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Speaker 1: answer them. It's happened four different times. Missed opportunity only
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Speaker 1: on Arrow dot Net A r r oe dot net.
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Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. Good morning, AJ, how are you doing.
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Speaker 2: Good morning Arrow. It's a pleasure to meet you. Where
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Speaker 2: are you calling in from.
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Speaker 1: I'm from Charlotte, so I'm sure you probably came cruising
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Speaker 1: through here sometime during your journey.
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Speaker 2: I lived in Wilmington for a number of years and
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Speaker 2: was at Campbell June, North Carolina.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, So you know of the summertime heat
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Speaker 1: and what we're going through right now with these temperatures
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Speaker 1: in the low nineties with all that humidity.
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Speaker 2: It when you would walk out of an air conditioned
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Speaker 2: building and you'd wear sunglasses and they would immediately fog up.
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Speaker 1: So true, so true. First and foremost, thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for your dedication to this nation, and more importantly,
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Speaker 1: thank you for continuing it. I call that beyond the
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Speaker 1: calling what you're doing right now by doing not only
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Speaker 1: the podcast, but by releasing this book, you understand that
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Speaker 1: we need to understand, and it has to take a
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Speaker 1: great teacher like yourself.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. I really do appreciate the opportunity
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Speaker 2: to come on the show. Thank you for recognizing the service.
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Speaker 2: I think that what I wanted to do is continue
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Speaker 2: to put an idea of service at the forefront of
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Speaker 2: people's minds. That you get more out of serving your country,
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Speaker 2: or your community, or your fellowship, whatever that may be.
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Speaker 2: You get more out of it than you put into it.
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Speaker 2: And I want to put that at the forefront.
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Speaker 1: I got to tell you where my wake up call was.
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Speaker 1: It was when I was in the eleventh grade going
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Speaker 1: into twelfth and it was during the Iranian crisis back
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Speaker 1: back in the when they had fifty two hostages. And
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Speaker 1: what happened is through AFS they brought students in from
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Speaker 1: Israel to help us understand that word you just said,
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Speaker 1: serving and doing service work for your nation. That was
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Speaker 1: a wake up call for me.
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Speaker 2: Dude. Yes, sir, I completely understand. It's it's a really
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Speaker 2: different way, you know. I think that there's a lot
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Speaker 2: of stuff that I personally, you know, I'm on the
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Speaker 2: internet like any other human being, and I see a
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Speaker 2: lot of stuff that's, you know, building a person up
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Speaker 2: and making them be you know, an individual success. And
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Speaker 2: I think that's perfectly fine. And I love that idea
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Speaker 2: about people, you know, striving for their own individual success.
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Speaker 2: But I also recognize that combat teaches you, you know,
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Speaker 2: it's shape. I think for me, combat strips away the
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Speaker 2: illusion that we succeed alone. You know, we can learn
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Speaker 2: very quickly that what we really have is the person
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Speaker 2: to your left and to your right. Yes, and then
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Speaker 2: I think that lesson applies beyond war, and I think
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Speaker 2: applies to families, communities, and leadership and the way that
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Speaker 2: we see one another.
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Speaker 1: Can we talk about that person that's on your left
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Speaker 1: or right? Because it took my father his entire lifetime
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Speaker 1: to finally admit to the person on his left and right.
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Speaker 1: We knew that there was something wrong with my father,
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Speaker 1: but he wouldn't go get help. He was in World
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Speaker 1: War Two, but he was always in a position of
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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about it, but I know that it
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Speaker 1: was somebody on his right and left that you speak about.
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Speaker 2: You know, when we share these stories, it's very hard
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Speaker 2: to be able to share these stories, you know, especially
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Speaker 2: one we come from a place of service, so generally,
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Speaker 2: like self aggrandizing is not within our lexicon, right, things
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Speaker 2: that we don't want to talk about. How do you
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Speaker 2: write a memoir without being a narcissist? Right, Well, the
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Speaker 2: way that I wanted to do it was I wanted
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Speaker 2: to share the stories of other people because so many
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Speaker 2: people in my life impacted the trajectory of my life
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Speaker 2: by helping me along the way, and they never asked
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Speaker 2: for anything in return. So dark Horse is a thank
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Speaker 2: you and what I'd like to consider a love letter
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Speaker 2: to the people that shape my life, the ones I
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Speaker 2: served alongside and some of the ones that didn't make
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Speaker 2: at home, And I wanted to tell the world and
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Speaker 2: them and their families that I valued them, that they affected.
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Speaker 2: At the end of the day, they may have affected
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Speaker 2: only one life, and that was mine, and I wanted
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Speaker 2: to make sure that they knew that.
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Speaker 1: Doesn't this also kind of evolve into being an invitation
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Speaker 1: for those of us that have not served this nation,
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Speaker 1: so that we have a better understanding of the footing
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Speaker 1: and the path that you have walked and continue to walk.
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Speaker 2: That's a good question. I think that when we can.
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Speaker 2: I think one of the things that I like to
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Speaker 2: do on when I interview veterans is I try to
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Speaker 2: provide context over content, And so what I wanted to
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Speaker 2: provide to the American public or anybody that reads this
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Speaker 2: book is the context. Not just like there were you
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Speaker 2: know four you know, we sent you know, twenty thousand
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Speaker 2: troops go forward to X place. I wanted to give
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Speaker 2: you what life was like through the eyes of one
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Speaker 2: of those troops. Whenever we see at the bottom of
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Speaker 2: a ticker on a news channel, we see, you know,
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Speaker 2: numbers of troops do whatever or take whatever this is.
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Speaker 2: This is you're getting to live this and see this
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Speaker 2: and feel this. The idea is that I wanted to show,
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Speaker 2: not tell. I wanted to bring the reader into what
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Speaker 2: it's like to be a Lance corporal in the Core
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Speaker 2: and then go through the fear and the doubt and
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Speaker 2: the chaos and the love that we experienced it every
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Speaker 2: single day.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how that you were able to handle it.
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Speaker 1: And the reason why is because we are currently positioned
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Speaker 1: in a place to where my son in law's cousin
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Speaker 1: has parked his car at their house. Why because he's
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Speaker 1: serving the nation right now. Do we know where he is?
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Speaker 2: No?
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Speaker 1: How were you able to do that? Dude? You are
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Speaker 1: being sent around the world and you can't even communicate
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Speaker 1: with your family. I don't know how you stay so
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Speaker 1: strong on the inside of your soul.
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Speaker 2: I appreciate that, you know, you do have to compartmentalize.
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Speaker 2: That is part of conflict, and I talk about that
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Speaker 2: through the book of having to compartmentalize, and when you're
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Speaker 2: going into harm's way, especially if you're going into combat,
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Speaker 2: of a part of you has to be put into
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Speaker 2: a box. You know, a lot of times, the compassion,
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Speaker 2: the empathy, the things that make you human have to
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Speaker 2: get put into a box and you have to become
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Speaker 2: at some point, at some forms animalistic. But you have
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Speaker 2: to do that without losing your soul. And so you
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Speaker 2: walk this tyrope. But anything that I endured, I would
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Speaker 2: say that my family and my friends and the people
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Speaker 2: left at home, they have to endure just as much
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Speaker 2: because they have to live in the unknown and they
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Speaker 2: always have to wonder about us, And so I wanted
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Speaker 2: to write a lot about the families in dark Horse
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Speaker 2: as well, to show their struggle, what life was like
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Speaker 2: for them, and that when one person joins the military,
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Speaker 2: it's not just them alone. Their entire family signed up
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Speaker 2: for it as well.
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Speaker 1: Inside dark Horse, did that come from what you call
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Speaker 1: quiet strength? And you had to figure out, Okay, I've
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Speaker 1: got to come up with a voice. I found the voice.
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Speaker 1: Now let share it.
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Speaker 2: So when I think that we have this ability to
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Speaker 2: shed light on what it's like to be a service member,
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Speaker 2: on what it's like to all of the aspects, the
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Speaker 2: good and the bad. You know, I love the Marine
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Speaker 2: Corps my breath, my blood. But I wanted to be
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Speaker 2: honest with it. I wanted to be I want to
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Speaker 2: be factual, you know, with what it's like to be
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Speaker 2: a young marine who's serving their country and going through
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Speaker 2: the goods and the bads. And so I was I
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Speaker 2: wanted to also do with this book, Leadership through Allegory,
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Speaker 2: you know, you know I wanted to I don't want
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Speaker 2: to tell people how to be a good leader. I
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Speaker 2: wanted to show them what I experienced and then allow
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Speaker 2: people to take away and extrapolate what they wanted from
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Speaker 2: these lessons themselves, to put them in scenarios to say,
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Speaker 2: I want people to question my decision making. I want
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Speaker 2: people to say, well, this guy should have done this absolutely,
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Speaker 2: let's have a conversation about that, and then maybe that
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Speaker 2: can influence the next generation of leaders in any capacity.
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Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be just war, but in any capacity,
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Speaker 2: to say how do we make the next generation better.
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Speaker 1: The one thing that I really want to really get
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Speaker 1: into is that I want to talk with the mechanic,
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Speaker 1: the one that dedicated their life to just do nothing
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Speaker 1: but fix the equipment, or the person that's there to
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Speaker 1: do the computer work but doesn't get to go to
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Speaker 1: the battlefield. But if these people were not there, then
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Speaker 1: they feel like, well, I it was just my job. No,
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Speaker 1: it wasn't your job. You sacrifice your life. Can we
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Speaker 1: get more stories like that from the men and women
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Speaker 1: who are basically the roadies of war.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly correct, Hero, Thank you so much for mentioning
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Speaker 2: that that is the hardest part. And right, you know,
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Speaker 2: I run my own podcast when I interview veterans of service,
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Speaker 2: and I have to fight the algorithm right all the time.
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Speaker 2: The algorithm rewards sniper, it rewards delta force, it rewards
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Speaker 2: sealed team, whatever, and I and I, but that doesn't
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Speaker 2: mean that their service is any more valuable than the
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Speaker 2: service of another person who is a supporting agency. One
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Speaker 2: of the things that I learned and was taught and
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Speaker 2: was you know, was was was was was like born
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Speaker 2: into me when I was in sniper school, is that
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Speaker 2: a sniper is at the end of a very long
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Speaker 2: math equation and where every single portion of the team,
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Speaker 2: every single person, had their role to play. So I
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Speaker 2: often put in some of the metaphors I use in
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Speaker 2: the book is I use the idea of a symphony,
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Speaker 2: and there are conductors of the symphony, and there are
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Speaker 2: every single aspect. A symphony is only beautiful because it's
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Speaker 2: the sum of all of its individual parts. Combat only
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Speaker 2: works because people work together. And so if you are
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Speaker 2: a cook, baker, candle stick maker inside of the military,
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Speaker 2: your job is not only important, but it is integral
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Speaker 2: to the service. And I wanted to honor and pay
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Speaker 2: homage to every single member of the service that did that.
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Speaker 2: Your service is not more valuable because you've gotten a
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Speaker 2: gunfight or not. And I wanted to be able to
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Speaker 2: convey that through the book, and I was happy to
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Speaker 2: do so.
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Speaker 1: A Jay, how do we do that when you're back
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Speaker 1: here in the States and your feet around the soil,
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Speaker 1: Because I've got journalists that are coming back from you
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Speaker 1: Crane right now, and it's like, Okay, what are you
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Speaker 1: going to teach? What are you going to teach?
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Speaker 2: What are you going to teach?
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Speaker 1: How do you teach that person that says I don't
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Speaker 1: feel like working today? And I instantly, I swear to God,
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Speaker 1: I always think of you guys in foreign countries because
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Speaker 1: I go what happens if one of our soldiers said
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Speaker 1: I don't feel like working today, that's part of your
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Speaker 1: symphony that just messed up?
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Speaker 2: Then, dude, that's exactly correct. You've nailed it right. You've
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Speaker 2: hit the nail right on the head. It's not about you, right,
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Speaker 2: it's about us. So if there are people that are unmotivated,
9:54
Speaker 2: so I want to write a little context. I wake
9:56
Speaker 2: up every morning and I'm like and I have like
9:58
Speaker 2: the sleep in my eye and the coffee. Oh my god, god,
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Speaker 2: you know, I go through the same question. So there's
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Speaker 2: individual determination that says, Okay, I got to put my
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Speaker 2: you know, I put my boots on right just like
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Speaker 2: anybody else in the morning. I've got to be able to,
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Speaker 2: you know, carry on a mission that has a collective outcome.
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Speaker 2: But what I found was that what drives marines, you know,
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Speaker 2: and soldiers or any member of a team anywhere to
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Speaker 2: do extraordinary things is they understand that they are part
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Speaker 2: of a larger picture. And so my dedication to the
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Speaker 2: completion of that picture is what drove me. If there's
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Speaker 2: a leader out there that is struggling to motivate somebody
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Speaker 2: to be able to drive, you know, to their own
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Speaker 2: individual potential, what I say to them is give them
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Speaker 2: the larger picture. Allow them to see how their individual
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Speaker 2: contribution draws to a larger outcome for a collective purpose.
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Speaker 1: How do you react, though, aj, when when people are
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Speaker 1: foreign countries, they'll look at us and say, you don't
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Speaker 1: know war, It's never happened in your country. And yet
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Speaker 1: and yet my brother went to war, my father, my grandfather,
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Speaker 1: and now my my my son in law's cousin. I
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Speaker 1: mean it's like, yes, but but we have not seen
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Speaker 1: the destruction. How can we mentally and physically prepare ourselves
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Speaker 1: for something that other nations have seen, have gone through Well.
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Speaker 2: I think the first thing is I look at that
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Speaker 2: is I look at that as a quality problem, right,
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Speaker 2: like we have our nation hasn't seen war on its soil, right,
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Speaker 2: And I think that, you know, in a very long time, right,
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Speaker 2: And I think that's actually a very good thing. One
11:28
Speaker 2: of the you know, I would say good things of
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Speaker 2: the global war and terrorism is that we thought abroad, right,
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Speaker 2: we didn't have to bring that carnage back home. One
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Speaker 2: of the things you know inside of that is is
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Speaker 2: that we have a very strong and a very capable military,
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Speaker 2: very well educated military, and yet only one percent of
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Speaker 2: the country can actually serve, you know, qualifies physically and
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Speaker 2: mentally to search. So there's a very small demographic. If
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Speaker 2: we have to continue to fight wars, I would rather
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Speaker 2: do it on other soil. But what I like to
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Speaker 2: do is through this book book, right, is drive this
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Speaker 2: idea of the wars do come home in some sense
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Speaker 2: and so being able to you know, to to understand
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Speaker 2: what a service member goes through. I want people to
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Speaker 2: actually be cognizant of what war really costs. It's not
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Speaker 2: just dollars and cents. When a politician or a policymaker,
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Speaker 2: you know, to them war is strategy, a budget or posture.
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Speaker 2: For me, it's names and faces and families. So there
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Speaker 2: is a cost to that, and I wanted to show
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Speaker 2: the full cost of being able to what sending someone
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Speaker 2: to war actually costs us.
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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Aj Pashuti coming
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Speaker 1: up next. He's got a podcast it's called Combat Story
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Speaker 1: and his new book Dark Horse, Harnessing Hidden Potential in
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Speaker 1: War and Life. We are back with Aj Pushuti. I
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Speaker 1: actually had a journalist from Ukraine recently tell me that
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Speaker 1: this age of the drone is fantastic. But but, but,
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Speaker 1: but but it is only a tool. It is not
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Speaker 1: the answer. And that was a wake up call to
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Speaker 1: my soul.
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Speaker 2: You are exactly correct on that. You know, war, we've
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Speaker 2: gone through what's called you know, there are people, you know,
13:10
Speaker 2: your listeners can research it on their own. It's called
13:12
Speaker 2: the five generations of war of conflict. And so there's
13:16
Speaker 2: a definite progress and they're usually faced with technological advancements
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Speaker 2: from the machine gun to artillery to different types of tactics,
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Speaker 2: and now we have drones and autonomous you know, weapon systems.
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Speaker 2: Those things exist, and then war will continue to evolve.
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Speaker 2: That humans are you know, I guess impressive in their
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Speaker 2: way and their uncanny ability to figure out new and
13:38
Speaker 2: novel ways to kill each other. War will continue to progress.
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Speaker 2: But our competitive advantage as United States military is we
13:45
Speaker 2: have a very professional military and a very well educated military.
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Speaker 2: The six inches between our ears is the strongest and
13:51
Speaker 2: most capable weapon system that we have in our arsenal.
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Speaker 1: That it's powerful. Let's put you on a speaking tour, sir.
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Speaker 1: Oh my, go god ah. But you know what on
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Speaker 1: combat story. First of all, I'm so in love with
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Speaker 1: the idea that you are sharing the stories and hopefully
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Speaker 1: it inspires those that are listening to get their stories
14:12
Speaker 1: out there as well. But are you running into the
14:15
Speaker 1: same situation that I am. If you are from the
14:18
Speaker 1: Vietnam War, you'll go, okay, thank you very much, but
14:20
Speaker 1: I want to talk. Okay, I'll let you know. But
14:23
Speaker 1: then Korean War, I don't want to talk. Then the
14:25
Speaker 1: World War II and World War One, if we're blessed
14:27
Speaker 1: to have that, they're more open to talk. Are you
14:30
Speaker 1: going through the same levels of challenge just to get
14:33
Speaker 1: the story?
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Speaker 2: Yes, we are very much so. You know, when it
14:37
Speaker 2: comes to the Vietnam generation, I think what happens is
14:40
Speaker 2: that was such a tough war in the United States
14:44
Speaker 2: that there was the way that the Vietnam veterans were
14:46
Speaker 2: treated when they got home from that war. Fifty eight
14:49
Speaker 2: thousand Americans lost their life in that conflict, and when
14:52
Speaker 2: they came home from that, and the carnage that those
14:54
Speaker 2: men and women saw when they came home, they were
14:57
Speaker 2: treated so poorly that they just blocked that portion of
15:00
Speaker 2: their lives away in a very deep, dark place. So
15:03
Speaker 2: when I do talk with them, sometimes it is the
15:07
Speaker 2: first time they've ever talked about it. What I have
15:09
Speaker 2: is a benefit is as a combat veteran myself, I
15:13
Speaker 2: get a chance to sit with them and I have
15:16
Speaker 2: walked in a similar space, So there's a familiarity and
15:19
Speaker 2: there's a kinship that we have. And what I sit
15:21
Speaker 2: with them is and I tell them I will take
15:23
Speaker 2: care of your story on combat story. We don't do politics,
15:27
Speaker 2: we don't do religion, we don't do set in sensationalism.
15:30
Speaker 2: I'm not telling people what type of protein shake they
15:32
Speaker 2: need to drink. I sit across from a veteran, as
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Speaker 2: another veteran who's walked a similar path and say something
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Speaker 2: simple is what happened out there and they know that
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Speaker 2: I trust them, and I love them, and I care
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Speaker 2: for them, and I will do justice to their story.
15:46
Speaker 2: And that opens them up because they're very cautious. They're nervous,
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Speaker 2: you know, they don't want to have somebody twist it
15:51
Speaker 2: and spin it for something of their own means. And
15:53
Speaker 2: so we're very fortunate to sit with these men and
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Speaker 2: women who are fortunate enough to share their story.
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Speaker 1: See I love Combats story. And the reason why is
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Speaker 1: because as I'm listening, I'm putting myself in a position
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Speaker 1: of being very much aware of my own United States
16:08
Speaker 1: of America that we don't know. And if I didn't
16:11
Speaker 1: do my homework or my prep work before this by
16:13
Speaker 1: listening to shows like Combat Story or even reading Dark Horse,
16:17
Speaker 1: then I'm not doing my homework. And we need to
16:19
Speaker 1: be doing our homework.
16:21
Speaker 2: That's exactly correct. What's past is prologue, and those who
16:26
Speaker 2: fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. And
16:28
Speaker 2: so there is a ton of lessons, a ton of lessons.
16:31
Speaker 2: And one of the things is since we didn't as
16:33
Speaker 2: a culture allow for veterans of Vietnam to be able
16:37
Speaker 2: to tell their story, you can see we made us
16:39
Speaker 2: a lot of the same mistakes in my war, in
16:41
Speaker 2: my generation's war, where we followed the same footsteps and
16:44
Speaker 2: made the same exact mistakes over a number of years
16:47
Speaker 2: that we had done twenty thirty years beforehand. So with
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Speaker 2: capturing these stories, what we hope to do is change
16:53
Speaker 2: the zeitgeist, change the dialogue around saying, hey, listen, you know,
16:57
Speaker 2: failures are okay to talk about, right because if we
17:00
Speaker 2: can talk about our failures, then we can prevent making
17:02
Speaker 2: them again in the future.
17:04
Speaker 1: I got to ask you a question. This is a
17:06
Speaker 1: radio question. Plus I'm also a voiceover actor. Your voice
17:10
Speaker 1: was it trained by a sergeant? Was it trained by
17:12
Speaker 1: being out there and you had to direct your voice
17:14
Speaker 1: with pitch, volume and tone? How did you get control
17:17
Speaker 1: of your voice like you've got right now because you've
17:19
Speaker 1: got really good pitch, volume and tone.
17:22
Speaker 2: I really appreciate that, Erro. I'm going to lose a
17:24
Speaker 2: ton of cool points here. As a sniper. I was
17:27
Speaker 2: a thespian in high school, and really I actually wanted
17:31
Speaker 2: to be an actor. That's what I wanted to go
17:32
Speaker 2: into and then nine to eleven have it and kind
17:35
Speaker 2: of changed that trajectory. But thank you so much. I
17:38
Speaker 2: do appreciate that. And then you know, the Marine Corps
17:40
Speaker 2: is very good at teaching people how to be public speakers.
17:43
Speaker 2: That is, if you cannot convey your thoughts right in
17:47
Speaker 2: a coherent manner, whether that be through writing or through speech,
17:50
Speaker 2: then you cannot influence other people to be able to
17:53
Speaker 2: follow your direction. And so one of the things they
17:56
Speaker 2: do teach us in the Marine Corps is being able
17:58
Speaker 2: to speak coherently and not just have explotives or ums
18:02
Speaker 2: all over the place. It's one of the things that
18:03
Speaker 2: we teach, especially as instructors.
18:05
Speaker 1: You bring up something here that has been it's like,
18:08
Speaker 1: it can't go silent. You said nine to eleven, And
18:11
Speaker 1: we're on the twenty fifth anniversary this year, during the
18:13
Speaker 1: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this nation, we aren't
18:16
Speaker 1: talking about nine to eleven. The younger generation to go
18:18
Speaker 1: what was that? And it's like, what, okay, are we
18:21
Speaker 1: failing as adults by not telling them? What do we
18:24
Speaker 1: need to do to keep it very much active inside
18:26
Speaker 1: the conversations of all people of this nation.
18:30
Speaker 2: That's a great question. The thing that I think that
18:32
Speaker 2: I wanted to do when I was conveying the when
18:35
Speaker 2: I was writing about nine to eleven is I wanted
18:38
Speaker 2: to convey the idea of dread, right, of what was
18:44
Speaker 2: this that guttural that that that that that that that
18:48
Speaker 2: air from your lungs being sucked out as you're watching
18:51
Speaker 2: something happen. As we watched the towers fall in my
18:55
Speaker 2: high school auditorium, because I'm on the West coast. When
18:57
Speaker 2: I when we watched the towers fall, the left the
19:00
Speaker 2: room and this feeling of just absolute fear for your
19:04
Speaker 2: fellow Americans. I wanted to bring us back there and
19:07
Speaker 2: talk about that because my personal belief is that right
19:11
Speaker 2: now the United States is in a very distraught state.
19:16
Speaker 2: We are seeing fellow Americans as enemies. We're calling them
19:19
Speaker 2: enemies because of their own political or ideology. And I
19:23
Speaker 2: wanted to bring us back to a moment that said,
19:25
Speaker 2: none of that really mattered. When I hugged somebody, I
19:27
Speaker 2: didn't care whether they were a Republican or a Democrat.
19:30
Speaker 2: It didn't matter they were an American. When we sat
19:32
Speaker 2: in an auditorium and cried and wept over the loss
19:36
Speaker 2: of American lives, that was unity that brought us together.
19:39
Speaker 2: Now I'm not looking for another attack. I don't want
19:41
Speaker 2: that to bring us together. But I want to bring
19:43
Speaker 2: that moment back and say, for a moment in time,
19:46
Speaker 2: we loved one another unconditionally as Americans. Get back there.
19:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, we as broadcasters, we were called into action into
19:52
Speaker 1: the station to make sure that we were so up
19:54
Speaker 1: to date. All programming stopped, everything stopped. And it's like
19:58
Speaker 1: there's such a story this nation and all of its
20:01
Speaker 1: people that is going unspoken. And that's why I rely
20:05
Speaker 1: on people like yourself. You've got to be the kickstarter.
20:08
Speaker 1: We're relying on you to say so that someone younger
20:10
Speaker 1: can say, let me go to chat GPT and find
20:12
Speaker 1: out what's going on with this thing that they keep
20:14
Speaker 1: bringing up.
20:16
Speaker 2: Context matters. Context matters, emotion matters. We as humans are
20:20
Speaker 2: emotional creatures, and some people try to hide that and
20:23
Speaker 2: they try, you know, to bury that. I think that
20:25
Speaker 2: emotion is what makes us different than anything else, any
20:28
Speaker 2: other creature on this planet, and our ability for compassion,
20:31
Speaker 2: and so I wanted to write that, and that compelled me,
20:34
Speaker 2: and I went through the five stages of grief, right,
20:36
Speaker 2: you know, as we watched this happen. I remember listening
20:39
Speaker 2: to I had KFRC was my morning radio show, and
20:42
Speaker 2: it was oldies. Right. That's what I listened to on
20:45
Speaker 2: the way to school every morning as a high school senior.
20:47
Speaker 2: And that was a national broadcast that was taken over
20:49
Speaker 2: so as broadcasters like you who conveyed the raw emotion
20:53
Speaker 2: of what was happening, the fear and the doubt. We
20:55
Speaker 2: so often try to bury that as humans, and I
20:58
Speaker 2: wanted to tell the world that a force free con
21:00
Speaker 2: scout sniper with twenty one years of service still has fear,
21:03
Speaker 2: still has doubt. Even before this radio show this morning,
21:06
Speaker 2: I'm sitting around nervous in my house. Failure is the
21:10
Speaker 2: first step to success, and I wanted to be able
21:12
Speaker 2: to show people that fear is a normal, normal emotion.
21:15
Speaker 1: Okay, you said you went to Campla June. Okay, here's
21:18
Speaker 1: the thing. When it came to barbecue, were you vinegar
21:20
Speaker 1: or did you do the tomato bass? What did you
21:23
Speaker 1: do when you were over there Campla June.
21:25
Speaker 2: I am a convert. I am a vinegar barbarescute fand
21:29
Speaker 2: I am a convert. My friend, what is it? Smithfields
21:32
Speaker 2: is my favorite barbecue out in Wilmington, North Carolina, with
21:35
Speaker 2: the full law and the vinegar.
21:38
Speaker 1: Man.
21:38
Speaker 2: I missed that oh my god.
21:40
Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about you?
21:42
Speaker 1: Because this has got to be the first step of
21:44
Speaker 1: a brand new beginning growing forward.
21:46
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, erro So Ajpashudi dot com. That's
21:50
Speaker 2: AJ pas ci Uti dot com. And then you can
21:55
Speaker 2: find dark Horse anywhere books are sold. There's also links
21:59
Speaker 2: to story on there as well, so on Combat Story,
22:03
Speaker 2: we are on every single platforms, on every single platform.
22:06
Speaker 2: And then the book you can buy it anywhere that
22:08
Speaker 2: books are sold. I also did the audio books, so
22:11
Speaker 2: if you want to hear me chuckle it myself and
22:14
Speaker 2: also hear my voice crack at times, and I would
22:18
Speaker 2: recommend chapter fifteen if people are looking for an audiobook.
22:21
Speaker 2: Sample chapter fifteen. I have a fourteen year old girl
22:26
Speaker 2: who reads a letter that she had written to me
22:28
Speaker 2: in Afghanistan, and we juxtaposed that with heavy heavy combat.
22:32
Speaker 1: Dude, you got to come back to this show anytime
22:33
Speaker 1: in the future. The door is always going to be
22:35
Speaker 1: open for you.
22:37
Speaker 2: Ero. I'm ready to do it, man, let's do it.
22:39
Speaker 2: I'm in so please please please, I mean it, bring
22:41
Speaker 2: me back and I'm we can chat forever. I'm happy
22:44
Speaker 2: to do it. I love it.
22:45
Speaker 1: Be brilliant today okay Aj, thank.
22:48
Speaker 2: You so much. Man I really do appreciate it. Eron
22:50
Speaker 2: you have a great day. My friend.