Latest / 10:14 Moondust / Gunny's Mini Episode

Transcript

Gunny's Mini Episode · 10:14 Moondust

• Moondust: All right, here we go. Hey all and welcome to this mini episode of the Ten Fourteen Moondust Podcast. I'm the old gunny, and I'm so glad you have chosen to join us for this ride. by myself for this episode, and I'm going to explain why in just a minute. if you're a returning guest, I want to thank you for coming back. and again, I hope that God has used us in some way to to touch you in your life. if this is the first time you're joining us, then Daf and I both humbly pray that you get to take away a little deeper understanding of what Christ can do for you and has done for you through the testimony. Of some of your brothers or sisters in arms. But before we go any further, let's pray and ask God to bless these efforts. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for this day. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to to sit down in a little bit unconventional manner. Lord, we thank you for for who you are. Lord, we thank you for the blessings that you've provided us, Lord. We thank you for giving us this this show, Lord. We thank you that that that it's that we know that it's reached out and touched some folks because we've gotten some great feedback, Lord. And we we thank you for those blessings, Lord. We thank you for for those things refilling our cups, Lord, so that so that it can continue to overflow and hopefully bless others, Lord. We ask there, Lord, that that as we do this this funny solo episode, Lord, that you that you'll bless us, Lord. Lord, that you'll give me, Lord, you'll give me the words. Lord, you'll give me the strength. Lord, to do what honors you, Lord, that you'll, you know, as our pastor always says, Lord, that you'll hide me, Lord, behind the cross, Lord, and that you'll only the only words that come from me are the words that you've directed, Lord, and that you've guided. Lord, we ask, Lord, that you walk with us, Lord, through the rest of this show, Lord, through the rest of this week. Lord, we ask, Lord, that our words today may bless one person. Lord, just one person will be all will be make it all worth it, Lord. We ask, Lord, that you you do those things. And Lord, we love you, Lord, and we thank you again, Lord, for all your many blessings. We ask all these things in your holy name's sake. Amen. Alright guys, so here's the deal. it's just me today. for a couple of reasons. So as most of you know, it's the Halloween season, the football end of the high school football season, the band season, it's a little bit of everything. So Das schedule and my schedule have been a little chaotic. and so What we didn't wanna do is go a month w without releasing another another show. So we decided that what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a couple of mini shows, so you're stuck with just me. hopefully, hopefully you'll get something out of me running my mouth. but I'm gonna do the absolute best that I can to give you some words of maybe wisdom, maybe funny stuff. I don't really know. We'll see how it goes. So what I wanted to start with today, you guys, is what we do is we send we've mentioned in our shows before, for all of our guests that come on the show, we send them a questionnaire and we ask that they fill it out, send it back to us. it's not necessarily the questions we're gonna ask, but it kind of gives Daf and I really kind of a heads up on on some of the things that we might want to lead into. you know, for example, I would have never guessed that Deputy Tooper was you know found a crime. Christ in a in a Pentecostal church. I've known him for a while. And when he put that on his on his sheet here, I was like, man, dude, we've got to ask him about this. and then a couple other folks that are really just it this gives us a good a good starting place to start really just start asking folks questions. So what we're gonna try to do in this weird in this weird many episodes that we're doing is I'm actually going to I've done very little prep work. I'm gonna answer these questions wide open on the sc on the the the podcast with no really the only thing that I did any research on was the scripture itself just because I believe that God's word deserves that. so I'm gonna try to answer these questions to the best of my abilities and then we're gonna go from there. We'll see what happens. so the first question is full name. So my my full name is Frank Carson. If you really want to know my middle name is Leroy but nobody ever calls me that. And I am the third. yes, there were two more of me. there are two more of me running around here. the next question is what do you want us to call you? So we always ask our guests, like, hey, what do you what do you want us to call you, right? obviously I go by gunny. A few people call me Frank, but not very many. we like to ask our guests that simply because as our listeners know, right, as as you're in the military, a lot of folks just go by their last names. Some of us have some pretty comical nicknames. hopefully we'll get some pilots on here one day, which means we'll have to use call signs. That's weird to me, but that's what those guys go by. so that's why we always ask folks that. so favorite scripture. So really so that's the next question on here is what's your favorite scripture? So I actually have three that we're gonna talk about today and really I wanna talk about how these things kinda work together. at least in my life. So we're going to start out in Kings. In 1 Kings chapter 19, verses 4 through 8 is where we're going to start. I got to put my eyeballs on. A full disclosure, I forgot my classes this morning at church. And well, I paid for it. It was difficult for me to for me to to read the word. So I had to squint a little bit, but it's okay. Alright, so again I'm in the King James version. of of his word. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and and eat. And he looked, and behold there was a cake, bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head, and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink, and And went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the Mount of God. So a little bit of a background on this. I think most most folks have probably are probably fairly familiar with this. but we're talking about the prophet Isaiah here. And and he had I mean he he had battled he'd battled on behalf of God his whole life. at one point he even goes down a little bit further, right down here in verse ten, c you know, 'cause God tells him to get up and get moving. and he says, I've been a I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. So I'll tell you why the scripture means so much to me. Isaiah had been fighting the good fight his whole life. I mean his whole life, right? He he fought Jezebel and he was fighting a he was fighting a spiritual battle th through his entire life. And he felt defeated. He felt like he was completely. I mean he felt like he was losing the fight. he wasn't. I mean we go and we look at some of the things that he had done in the chapters previous to this, right? I mean, I mean, he had taken out the prophets of Baal. he he brought rain. He I mean he'd done a lot of amazing things. but he just felt like he wasn't like he wasn't doing anything. He was just tired. and then he gets here and he's running because I mean because they're chasing him, right? Jezebel and her armies are or they're chasing him, they're trying to I mean they're gonna kill him. and he and he just runs until he's just tired. He is completely exhausted. And he sits down and he requests that God kill him. and and I'll be honest, as and most folks listening to this, right, especially our veteran community, I think there's probably been days in pretty much all of our lives where we've just sat down and said, God, just let it be over. you know, I'm tired. you know, it is enough now, Lord, take away my life. And here's what's crazy to me, right? It is is Isaiah is ready to quit. He is ready to give it all up. and and just I mean, he's ready for God to take his life. and he lays down and goes to sleep. some of us have been there, right? Some of us have been so mentally and emotionally exhausted that we just lay down and go to sleep, right? and then this angel comes down, right, and touches him. You know, he's like, Hey, arise and eat, right? Get up and eat. and he's prepared him some food. he's got him something to eat, something to drink. and he does eats and he drinks and he lays down and he goes back to sleep. because I don't think at that point Isaiah was really ready. He was at his limit still, right? but then the angel of the Lord comes back again, right? and I heard somebody talk the other day, I believe it was actually in church, right? We talked about the angel of the Lord versus just an angel. I mean this is this is the this is the the beginning of this is the Holy Spirit, right, in the Old Testament, right? The angel of the Lord came to him a second time, touched him, told him to arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. What he telling him here is that is that the journey is too great for Isaiah, but the journey is not too great for Isaiah with God. so that's gonna lead us to our to the second scripture that I want talk about. So I'm gonna flip over to the New Testament, right? We're gonna move to a to a scripture that again I think a lot of people are probably familiar with. I'm gonna stick my bookmark in here so I don't lose my spot. so if you move move over to the New Testament into Matthew, right? We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 11. and we're gonna start here in in verse 28, right? We'll talk a little bit. So this is Jesus speaking. He he's He he's talked to some of his He's been talking to some of His disciples, He's been out preaching, and this is This is one of the things that he's telling folks how to come to God through him. Right? And he says here in verse 28 of chapter 11 in the Gospel of Matthew, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Man So we just talked about Isaiah. Isaiah literally finds a juniper tree, lays down, and says, I'm done. God, please just take me now, is what Isaiah says. And then we fast forward here to Matthew, right? And to the gospel, right? The gospel literally means the good news, right? So we fast forward to the gospel of Matthew. And now we we've we've moved from the Holy Spirit touching Isaiah to Jesus Christ himself coming in and saying, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. So Isaiah was so burdened and so heavy laden that he had worked so hard. And now Christ is telling us just like he told, just just like God told him then, right? Come to me and I'm gonna give you some rest. but he doesn't stop there. So this is where I think that we man, d this is a tough one, right? I'm gonna I'm gonna convict myself for a minute. This is where I think we as Christians need to be a little bit careful, right? Because the easy answer, right, is to say, Hey, hey, Isaiah was tired, you know. We go back here, Isaiah was tired. He was he laid down and he asked God to take his life. And God came and God gave him. You know, the the the angel of the Lord came and gave him bread and and drink and told him to rest. And that's great. Told him to rest. We fast forward here, right? And Jesus is saying, hey. Come unto me and I will give you rest. But sometimes what we miss is what comes after that, right? So if we go back to Isaiah's story, right? In Isaiah, after God, after the the after the angel of the Lord tells him to rest, right, he tells him, he's like, Hey, arise, right? You need to eat this because you can't go this. The journey is too great for you. But he still tells him to get up and go, right? It goes further down, you know, in verse 10, where Isaiah is arguing with God, right? And and God's telling him he's telling God all the things he's done, like God doesn't already know, right? And the angel says, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. Behold, the Lord passed by in a great and strong wind, rent the mountains, and break in pieces of rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and so on and so forth, right? And then there comes a voice, right, to Elijah, right? And he says, What dost thou hear, Elijah? Right? And I think I misspoke earlier. I think I said Isaiah. we're talking Elijah, right? And he says, I've been very jealous, right? He has the same argument over again. And the Lord says unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. Right? So God's telling telling Elijah to go. Get up and go. You've rested. Now it's time to get to work. Right? Man, I feel bad. I think I messed that up. I'm not gonna edit it out, so we'll leave it in there. If I messed it up, put in the comments. Hey Frank, you're mixing your names up. bear with me. But then we move here to twenty-eight, right? Or to verse twenty-eight and twenty-nine in in Matthew, really twenty-nine, right? And Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find a rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now, what he's not saying is you can lay down and you can be done, right? He's not saying that. He didn't let Elijah lay down and take a break. Well, he let Elijah take a break, but he didn't say he could quit. Jesus isn't saying quit. He's saying, Take my yoke upon you. and and and let's get to work, right? And now we're gonna get to probably a as somebody who spent their entire adult life in the military, this is something that that makes me very happy. because and and this I wasn't even planning on talking about this. And ironically in Sunday school this morning with our youth, we talked about this passage. I said, man, this passage fits exactly what exactly what what it should what what it should be, right? So we go back to the book of Samuel, right? And we're talking about David. David at this time is a he's he's a shepherd boy, right? He he goes to the he gets sent to the army to bring his brother some supplies. the army of Israel is is fighting the Philistines. and there's the giant, right, David and Goliath. so there's the giant Goliath, who you know stood nine foot tall and you know, stood in front of the armies and and really what w man What's amazing to me is is that Goliath, the fact that he's a giant is to be honest, is is kind of irrelevant, right? What I want to point out is that Goliath Goliath not only disrespects the Israel the the Israelites, but he also, I mean, he 100%, 100% defies God. Right. and tells them over and over again, right, that that he's gonna kill them and he is I mean, he he literally one hundred percent disrespects God. And I think this is important for today's world. You know, we talked about how we're tired. You know, Elijah was tired in Kings. We're tired in Matthew. We come to Christ to get rest. and Christ gives us rest and then he tells us to take on our yoke. And this is where, man, it's funny because Because the pastor this morning when he was talking about this, he was like, it's like we all want to be David, but we're really not David. We're the Israelites sitting on the sideline. And this is where I kind of want to challenge the Christians that are listening to this today. We all have a tendency to be the the Israelites on the sideline. We have the the the tendency to be the Christian on the sideline, right? So So I'm gonna I'm I'm here in first Samuel chapter seventeen. All right. We're gonna start it here in verse in verse forty two, right? And when the Philistine looked about and saw David he disdained him, for he was but a youth and and Rudy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. Gods the Philistine Goliath Goliath is telling David his intentions of wiping out David and all the Israelites. He's telling him that. And I would can I and today we need to be paying attention to the Goliaths and the world that are telling us That they want to wipe us out. And they're going to curse us by their gods. it's a little g here, right? and that they're gonna curse, they're gonna curse our God. They're gonna curse God, right? But this is the beautiful part, right? This is the beautiful part. So here comes David, right? You know, David's a teenager at this point, right? Fighting a nine-foot-tall giant, literal giant, right? Then said David of the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee unto mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give thee carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Man. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. Man. The battle is the Lord's. Listen, I'm not saying that we should be we should be out attacking people in the streets, right? What I'm saying is that we we as Christians need to be willing to stand up and say the battle is God's. When the enemy comes at us with swords and spears and shields, you know, and we're talking the we're we're talking the spiritual enemy, right? When he comes at us with these things, we have to understand that the battle is his, it's the Lord's, and we've it and he's got it. He's gonna take care of us. We have to be able to stand up and say, God is the true God. Christ is the one true Christ. You know, we He gives us rest, He gives us healing, He gives us all these great and wonderful things that we've talked about in Kings and in Matthew. And then He's telling us we need to stand up for Him. and and I'll tell you this is a That can be difficult, right? It's easy to do that sitting here in my office in my house. it's easy for me to say that sitting here with my, you know, my I love me wall behind me. and and nobody listening to me other than you know, whatever you guys listen to, later. But there's nobody here right now. There's nobody sitting in front of me to judge me. There's nobody, there's no nine foot tall giant threatening me right now. But man, here's where it gets hard, right? Tomorrow morning I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna to work. And not everybody I work with is a follower of Christ. and Christ is telling us that we have to go out and fight for him. again, we're not talking like I don't need to go start, you know, v violence in the streets on his behalf. you know, I pray to God that we never get to that point, at least not in my lifetime, but we may. What he wants us to do is we have to be able to go forward at work. And when you're at youth ministry, when you're at when you're at the football games or the basketball games or whatever it is that you do in your free time, right? Do not be afraid to stand up and tell the enemy that you are fighting with the power of God. and that he will give you into our hands this day. man, alright, I'm gonna get off my soapbox now. So now I've talked about my favorite scripture, I guess I should scriptures. I should probably get into the get into the rest of this thing. What how much time am I sitting at? I don't even know. I'm man I've talked for twenty five minutes. This is supposed to be many episodes. those of you that know me know that I can't do anything short. there's no such thing as a short episode to me. Alright, so like I said I'm gonna go through these, I'm gonna answer these kind of shotgun style. we'll see how they go. and we'll go from there. so do you have a current church or ministry you're active in and what is it? I currently attend Millbrook Baptist Church here in Aiken, South Carolina. a very active well I try to be very active with the student ministry. really they're active. I just kinda push in the right directions if I can. and I'm really just kinda getting started in that. I really enjoy doing it. I drive the bus. You know, we talked about her. we talked about Aaron and her holding up the arms of of Moses earlier today and man like Sometimes I'm perfectly okay being the guy in the back holding up an arm, holding up Moses' arms. So I try to do those things, you know, pick up where we can. and that's really what we do. and then this podcast, obviously, that's probably my my most active ministry as far as what I hope is making a difference. I live here in Aiken, that's the next question, is where do you live? I live right here in Aiken. No, I'm not giving you my address. I don't want people TP in my house. If come on my show, you'll get my address because I record here in my house. So if you want my address, come on the show and you got it. What do you do for work? So I'm a trainer at Savannah Riverside. That's nowhere near as glorious and cool as it sounds. Basically I spend the majority of my life telling people ready tidy lefty loosey. Because that's what we do, is we do operations and yep, that's about it. let's see. Well it does ask when you're born. I'm not telling you my age. I'm old. We'll leave it at that. somewhere between Ancient and Rocks, yeah. So where are you born? So I was born in York, South Carolina. Kinda Rock Hill, York area. if you know where that is. Rock Hill's just south of Charlotte and York's just west of there. but I was only there for a little while. the next question is where did you grow up? I really spent the majority of my childhood. I guess the nearest town would be Weaverville, North Carolina, kinda about halfway between there and Mars Hill, North Carolina, up in the mountains. I did spend a good bit of time down around York with my dad. My dad's side of the family still lives there. My dad still lives in that area, McConnell's. or really sharing. it's not sharing, it's definitely sharing if you live there. Yeah, so I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. I did have a childhood church. That's the next question. I'm gonna give a shout out to Ivy Creek Baptist Church. Ivy Creek Baptist Church is it's just it's down in the holler. that's a good hoobly phrase for you. Man, I'll tell you during Hurricane Helene, the water is a creek behind the church. The water made it almost over the church, but good Lord kept that little building, kept that little building alive and and doing God's work. there were some great, man, there were some great men. and some great women too, but but I really want to talk about some of the great men that that kind of guided me in that church. So we'll talk about the past so Pastor Tarl Rector, we all called him pumpkin, 'cause he well he well he had a kind of a pumpkin belly, has. He's still out there kicking, he's getting on out there in years now, but man, Torl Rector, what a what a so Torl the epitome of the mountain preacher, right? He he worked a full time job, and he tried to and he and he ran a church on not on the side, but like That's what he did, right? He worked and he did his church and he worked and he did his church. And every once in a while he'd take his hunting and then he did his church and he worked. man. I remember sitting and listening to some of his sermons and just like like just thinking, man, this is a man that is on fire for God. and really his sermons. I I I like music, and so, you know, I th our youth were pretty active then. We went to some of the we went to some of the there's some like youth some praise concerts and those things were cool. I went to some of those, went an offer at one of those at an offer call and and that was a lot of emotion, but it wasn't quite the same. What I do remember is I remember Torle Rector. I remember him preaching. I honestly don't remember what the sir I don't remember what his the what what his what his message was that day, but What I do remember is the Holy Spirit that day reaching down and grabbing me and saying, Get up off your butt and go to the altar at the front of the church. and I'll never forget, you know, the little brown bench, right? and the little step up onto the stage and the smell of the carpets. And man, that was the day like prior to that prior to that I went to church. After that, I was the church, right? It was it was amazing. I said a lot of great people that poured into me while I was at that church. you know, the McMahon family, great family. They did a lot to pour into me. I got to see them a few months ago. That was good. actually I guess it's probably been about a year now. so th really they really poured into me. Robert, our Sunday school teacher, lived next door to the church. It's kinda funny 'cause the church was in the middle. the pastor lived on one side. Our deaconslash Sunday school teacher lived on the other side. and and back then, man, that church was it was a little church, right? A little country church. And so we you know, we had a kind of a Sunday school for like the little kids, but the rest of us we just And I know churches still do that to this day. We just sat in the sanctuary and that's where we had our Sunday school, right? the adults and the bigger kids and and just so many great lessons. I I remember one, it was on the twenty third Psalm You when he talks about he maketh me lie down beside the still waters. I remember Charles talking about this, 'cause he worked at a place called Claxton Farm and all kinda animals. and and a lot of folks up there understood animals, right? But he said I'll never forget, he said, you know, we're kinda dumb as humans. because God g you know we can go to water and we'll sit down beside the water, but we won't drink it. We need somebody to sit down here, drink the water. and I'll never forget when he when he talked about Psalms twenty three telling us that that that he maketh us lie down beside the still water because sometimes that's what we need is God to just say, Sit down, drink the water. kind of like Elijah earlier, right? there we go. and then I would be remiss, if I don't talk about, my mom and my stepdad who took me to that church. took took my neighbors to the church. I it took everybody to the church, it was great. helped volunteer for Sunday schools, really showed me what a God honoring family was supposed to look like. and that's just I mean, it's awesome that I got to do that. all right, here we go. Tell us about your family. So I am married. My beautiful wife Katie is upstairs putting her little guy to bed as I'm recording this. like she's she puts up with me and And and she is supportive of this. I mean you guys know she's she's donated her dining room. Her dining room is on her dining room, it's now a podcast room. we had some friends over and they're like, it's the podcast. Yep, that's where we're filming. so that's pretty cool. I got three kids. I think you I think I've talked about all of James usually helps do our sound. he's He's my oldest boy. he does our sound and our video when his staff and I was just me today, so I'm just doing it myself today. when we You know, we did Nora helps us, Nora's his twin sister. she's she's our guest, our our visitor greeter. She meets him at the door because she's got a smiling face and she's not as grumpy as the rest of us. So So those are my two oldest kids and then I got my little guy. my little tiny terrorist Teddy. He's on a terrorist, he's a pretty good kid most of the time. but yeah, that's kinda my family. we've got an old dog. as a matter of fact I think she made a guest appearance on one of our one of our episodes. and we just got a new puppy, so you guys pray for me that and pray for this puppy that she she doesn't get doesn't find her way to the pound. I'm kidding, I'm not gonna shake her the pound. Dora might lose her mind if I do that. But but yeah, give us give us all some patience and some grace dealing with her. all right, so I guess we'll talk a little bit about military service because that's next. so I I did serve in the Marine Corps. I did twenty years from two thousand to twenty twenty. I went to boot camp, Paris Island. I was an O eight eleven field artillery cannoneer. As a matter of fact, I am the last O eight eleven gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps that I know of. so right as I was retiring, or right before I retired, the Marine Corps added a new MOS, the O eight sixty-nine, which was the field artillery unit leader, MOS or job. But I didn't hold that MOS long enough for it to show up on my DD two fourteen. and so as far as I know, every gunny that retired after me retired as as an O eight sixty nine. So I'm pretty sure I'm the last O811 gunny. if there's any O811 gunnies that that EAS are retired after me, man, let me know because I'll change my name. I'll change my call sign on on the Instagram. so units I mean served with everybody in tenth Marines. One ten, two ten, three ten, five ten, regiment. I did a stint with R S Columbia. I'm not gonna lie to you guys, R S Columbia's when I felt the most like Elijah. it was a pretty rough part of my life. not Not because of the job, the job wasn't great. It was recruiting duty, but it was a rough part of my life. and then I got to do four years in Fort Sill as an instructor. it was supposed to be three, but when it came up to my three-year mark, the monitor said, Hey man, you can go live in the basement of the Pentagon or you can stay there for another year. And I said, I think I'll stay here. So that's what I did. deployments, man, I got a few. so I'll tell you I'll tell you there's I know a question's a question on here that says a funny story, so I'll tell you guys a funny story. so I was a brand spanking new young Lance Cooley Lance Lance Coolieu in Camp Lejeune and I did not go so we were We were getting ready to go on a Mew. Man, I was young. I thought I was like I I Man, I was living life, right? we were gonna go on a Mew. I remember I went on my first field dive to get ready for the Mew. it had some great, man, had some great young NCOs at the time that really taught me the value of of each other and fieldcraft to take care of each other. It's just I loved it, right? but anyway, so fast forward I was supposed to spend Christmas of 2001 at the Vatican. I I'm not Catholic, but I think it'd be pretty cool to get to see the Vatican at Christmas time. unfortunately somebody flew a plant into a building. so I got to spend Christmas of 2001 in Kabul, Afghanistan. it was great. it was cold. Very cold. forty below zero cold. as a matter of fact, I hate cold weather to this day, because of that trip. so anyway, so I did that Mew. We went to Afghanistan. that was back in two thousand one. I gotta go to Egypt on that trip. That was a pretty cool trip. that's that's Man, Egypt was wild. we did a big NATO training Operation Bright Star before we went in Afghanistan, so that was kinda cool. came home from that. Next thing I know, two thousand three, I'm back I'm in Iraq. so I get I get to tell people all the time that I got to invade two countries before my twenty first birthday. which is kinda cool, but It also makes me old. anyway, I went back to my rack in two thousand four. probably the best worst deployment ever. it was the worst deployment ever 'cause we got more to rocket it every day. It was the best deployment ever because I got to be man, I was a cannon section chief. I had a I had a gun crew of just some awesome dudes. some awesome young Marines that just man, It was a terrible it was a terrible deployment. And Mortar Everyday was miserable. But, then I wouldn't trade those guys for the world. so Some really good dudes that have gone on to do some amazing things with their lives. We'll probably talk a little bit more as further episodes go on. I don't wanna spend too much time on this episode. I'm trying to keep it under two hours for you guys. I gotta go back to Afghanistan in 2015. That was a pretty cool deployment too. we got to do it as a provisional infantry company. we owned a battle space, it was kind of fun. I had a great young platoon commander at the time, great young second lieutenant. he's not a second lieutenant anymore. He's man, I haven't talked to him in a while. I'm sure he's lieutenant colonel these days, so I need to reach out to him, but he was man, what a great young platoon commander. Great great squad leaders, great Marines. I'll I man, such good people in that deployment. now here's what's funny, right, is is so two thousand nine is really about Afghanistan. Two thousand fifteen I finally made it to Okinawa. And this is great, right? At this point I was a staff server in the Ring Corps fifteen years. And people were like, hey man, what's Japan? I'm like, I know, I've never been to Japan. how you what do you you've been to Japan? I don't know, man. I managed to sp spent fifteen years in the Marine Corps before I made it to Japan. I got to go to Okinawa, it was great. had a good time. It was Okinawa. I mean if anybody's ever been to Okinawa, there's not really a whole lot to do there besides Yeah, there's not really a lot to there. the island's not very big. Saw some cool sights, got to go to the mainland, which was cool. shipped in Japan, that was pretty fun. and then in 2017, I got to go to Syria and make is is was. That was kind of fun. that was a weird deployment, but yeah, so I did a few of those. alright, some memorable training. Alright, so I mentioned earlier my first fill drop in Fort Pickett, right? So I learned something about leadership. I had a young corporal, Sullivan was his last name. he's young. Now I think he's young. Back then I thought he was about 112 years old. So, Sully, if you're listening to this, just know that I thought you were 112 years old. Sully was also about the same size as Goliath. at least in my mind, he was huge. Right, no, it was my first field dot, right? So we had to dig in for the night. And and I dig the hole. We had, I actually I was a recorder, so I didn't really help to dig the hole. I was on the hooks, which is terrible. But I felt terrible because my buddies are digging this giant hole and I'm not. So they pulled me off the hooks to go, man, this machine gun, and I have no clue like what's going on. Because I'm I'm the new guy, right? And I remember asking Corporal, then Corporal Sullivan, I'm like, Do I have to stay on this 50 cal all night? And that dude got so mad at me. Like, God, he was so mad. And at first I thought he was mad at me. I mean, even for like probably the next couple months. I thought he was mad at me because I was a dumb boot asking him a a question, right? Looking back on it, what I what I have figured out is that man, Sully was God, he was pissed at me. And he was mad at me because I thoroughly believed that guy was gonna leave me in that hole by myself all night long. No a and and there's no way he would have ever done that, right? He way too good of a leader. I man, I I didn't mean to insult him. Sully, if you're listening to this, or anybody that was that was that remembers those days, if somebody could send this over to Sully, listen man, I'm sorry if I offended you. I didn't mean to. I was I was a dumb boot. I didn't know any better. but man, he guy he chewed my butt for like twenty minutes. Looking back on it, I deserved it. It was a dumb question. my first filled up as a section chief was Fort Bragg. that was another great training moment. the question is tell some some of the more memorable training or field events. something that's not so great, memorable. So I'll tell you guys real quick about my first filled up is battery gunning. Some of the man, some of the Fox battery guys. sorry not Fox battery. some of the some of the golf battery guys probably remember this and this was this was a rough day. So we went to Fort Bragg to do a regimental regimental filled up. my first field I was a battery gunny. I was still a staff sergeant, but our battery gunny was in a he was at a school. So I got to take the batteries and battery gunny. And for those of you that are tillermen, you know this. what an honor it is to be the battery gunny of a cannon battery. like man, so great. So go up here and we're shooting and we're training. And I'm not gonna lie to you, man. My boys are running circles around the battalion, probably the regiment. It's great. We're kicking it, man. We're we're loving life. and we pull into this gun position, and we're shooting this by around at my command mission, which for those non-artillery folks, that those are the most boring things ever because you shoot around, right? Boom! And then we all load, and then we wait, and they tell us to shoot again. It's it's it's just slow and painful. but all six guns. We're supposed shoot at the same time. So the first gun fires. Sorry, they say f we shoot the first round, then we sound like Rice Krispie Treats, right? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so pick up the radio and I'm like, and I yell at them, right? Probably said some words I shouldn't have. Right. Said, hey, you know, get it together. It's supposed to be all at once, right? And as soon as I let go of the handset, gun six literally explodes. Like It literally exploded. inboard detonation. fused my function calls around to go off, but that's neither here nor there. The gun blew itself to pieces with the gun crew there. I man, the battery gunny for a headquarters battery had walked over him and I were talking. Luckily they were in the st they were across the street from us, so the aid station was there. he takes off towards the aid station to get help. I take off running to the gun. and when I get there, man guys, I just start triaging. I just start triaging kids, right? 'Cause these are my Marines. I take that back. I learned from a great commander they weren't my Marines. They were their family's Marines that were on loan to me and it was my job to keep safe and and man I didn't. I failed. so this round exploded. we had ten casualties on the ground. there's some pretty funny stories that come out of this too. only because well everybody survived. But I get there and and it's me and a young corporal who's a a combat lifesaver trained kid for the next gun over. We're the only two people there and there's ten casualties on the ground. And so we start triaging, right? We get to the first young marine, the first young marine. And I don't remember who I don't honestly don't remember who was who because I'm just triaging at this point. the first young Marine is he's he's I mean he's got some fragmentation wounds, but he I mean, honestly, most of us superficial. You know, he he'd go take a shower and clean most of that up. So we tell him, like, hey man, you're good. Start raining yourself up. We go to the next one. and and I get to the dock. So I get to our corpsman, that's the next person I come to. It's probably the hardest decision I ever made as a leader. the corpsman is laying face down in in a pool of his own blood. I reach down and I and I grab him to roll him over and I can feel the but the blood pumping out of from out of his femural artery. and and I've got eight casuals on the ground that I haven't gotten to. And so I look at the young corporal that's with me and I say, Hey man, he's he's done, go to the next one. And the young corporal's like, W what do you mean go to the next one? I'm like, I mean go to the next one. and let him go and I and I went to the next casualty. luckily, you know, thank God BAS was right across the street, some folks got there. but I finished triage all those casualties and came back to him and and w they were able to save his life. But at the time there was only there were only five of or there were only two of us there or nine casualties. I I was pretty I'm not gonna lie, guys, I I mean I kicked myself for a long time. I don't even know if Doc remembers this, but I talked to Doc a few weeks later. And I don't remember if it was at a hospital or if he had maybe he had gotten out of the hospital and he'd come to the be come to the office. I don't remember, but I talked to Doc and I Doc man, I gotta get this off my chest. Like this is this is crushing me because I cause I made the decision to leave him there. and man, I'll never forget this 19-year-old doc looks at and he's Well at least somebody was doing Triage. so Doc, if you're listening to this man, you've been a blessing to me in ways that I don't think you'll ever you'll ever know. So anyway, that's kind of a sad event. or a happy event, Pennyway, look at it. there are some funny things that happen there. the number two can in the air, we'll lose something little happier. The number two can in the air. He's laying on his back holding a propellant. he's got superficial wounds all over him, but he is concussed pretty bad. and the k like the grass is on fire. And I'm like, Hey man, give give me the give me the powders and he's like, What happened? He's all laughing. I'm like, dude, give me the powders much a fire burn to us. but we got everybody met of act, got everybody taken care of. it was it was a painful process. I learned a lot about leadership during that day, during those next few weeks. To the Marines of that battery, man. You guys, man, you guys are you guys are heroes. Fox Battery there. I think it was Fox Batteries. I what it was. Fox Batteries. Some of their folks showed up with Corman to help. The BAS across the street, man. 210 showed up that day. and said that was it was a good day. Alright, here we go. Let's get into some of the other answers or questions on here. There's a bunch, man. I gotta hurry up. I'm gonna run out of time. alright. did you have a church in the military? So I didn't until the very end of my career. So when I first joined, I'll be honest with you guys, I'm the prodigal, right? I was very active in church. started working in high school, made it difficult to get to church, went when I could, joined the Marine Corps and then man, I don't wanna say life happened 'cause that's a terrible excuse. but but I I kinda had stepped away from my faith, right? there are some people that that played a big part in it. So my my a chief in Iraq in two thousand four, great Marine Gutierrez, he he maintained his faith and I always admired him. McMahon was a guy with me in three ten. He he He always maintained his faith and always admired those guys. But I just mean I just I was terrible at it, right? but I did finally towards the end of my career, I started going to a church. this is kinda funny, I'll tell you guys how I started going to this church. So I promised my mother when I joined the military that I was going to that I was gonna go college. So I waited until I'd been in for like fifteen years, and so I started going to college. and I was going to Campbell University, they have a satellite campus on Camp Lejune, and one of their classes, the the required class, is Introduction to Christianity. And one of the homework assignments is you gotta go to church. And so they say, Hey, like, you know, if you're Catholic, don't go to a Catholic church. If you're Baptist, don't go to Baptist, you they tell you to go somewhere different. and so I had gotten kind of close with our chaplain. So we'll talk we'll talk Chaps Turner. so I go to Chaps and I'm like, hey man, I need to go to this like I'm supposed to go to this church. Like I'm supposed to go to church. Are you getting any recommendations? And he's like, Well, there's this Messianic Jewish church if you want to do something like that's just completely out of the ordinary. And I said, Yep, that's what I'm gonna do. long story short, that did not happen. I ended up at River of Life, which is a great church. My My barber actually recommended that church to me. It was old Vito, good dude, down in Richlands, North Carolina. went there, really enjoyed the church. those of you that have been in the military, you know, right, like you're never really at home. 'cause you never know when you're gonna come into work and get told you gotta you have orders, right? So even though I like the church, it really didn't feel like my home church. I'll tell you, man, my home church was probably 1st Battalion, 10th Marines. and that's just because man, we had a great chap. We had a few great chaplains when I was with that battalion, but we had Chaplin Turner, man, Chaplin Turner really, really made an impact on me. and I know I've told him this, but and and I still don't know if he truly understands. How much of an impact he made on me. We got to we had to share a truck for a little while in Fort Bragg. the Motor T guys made a sign and said, Holy guns, it's pretty awesome. what amazed me the most about Chaplain Turner was that he knew that I was not where I needed to be in the faith. But he never condemned me, he never scolded me. All he did was model Christian Excellency for me. And because of that, I River of Life Church in Jacksonville, North Carolina had a big part of of me, you know, I don't say refining my faith, but coming out of my faith. But man, Chaplin Turner is the guide. He didn't push me, he pulled me. and so chaps, I know you're listening. just know, man, how thankful how thankful to God I am for you. again, not for pushing but for pulling. pulling me back to where I needed to be. some of your close friends in the military, so I'm gonna talk about Joe. I don't know if Joe's listening or not. so I first met Joe, he was my section chief when I was a young Marine. he I went I got moved to his gun after Goliath, I mean Sullivan moved me off his gun 'cause I insulted him. That's not really what happened. but I did get moved to to Joe's gun. and here's what's crazy. So he was my section chief. And then fast forward a few years, we went to advanced cannon crewman together, and then he was my boss in the schoolhouse, and then he was my field artillery chief back in the fleet. So and Joe and I spent a lot of time together in a lot of different places. and he mentored me not so much on the faith side but on the on the being a good man side, on being a good leader side, on putting on putting your Marines before yourself always. so huge, huge impact on my life. Shane, Shane Shane was one of the he was one of the senior Lance corporals when I first got to the fleet. got front of the corporal shortly thereafter. Another one of those dudes that just I mean, always there for you. I haven't talked to Shane in it's been a hot minute since I talked to Shane, but I bet you right now I can pick up the phone and call him and be like like, yo dude, like like let's let's do it. let's get together and hang out. And I and I know that if I needed him he'd be here in a heartbeat. I hope he knows the same thing. for me. all right, we kinda talked about when I sort of diving into my phase. It was really right before I retired. and man, here's some funny stories. Alright, here we go. Alright, the only thing I wrote on here was Whoa Black Betty. Chaplin Turner's probably gonna die die laughing right now. Okay, so I told you Chaplin Turner and I shared a truck for a little while. We got a driver in Fort Bragg, great young Marine, barely spoke English, of Korean descent, great Marine, would do anything to take care of the people around him. he's just really hard to understand it. Ridiculous Korean accent, right? Great guy. So for some crazy reason, I got it stuck in my head that we were going to teach him the song Black Betty by Ramchan. And so we probably played that song about a hundred times a day. And the RP, myself, the chaplain, and our driver would literally drive around Fort Bragg singing Black Betty over and over again. It was great, right? So then fast forward to I had already retired from the Marine Corps. I get I get a call from Chaplin Turner's wife saying, Hey, hey Chap's just retiring. We need we're wondering if you would be willing to to come down here to to his retirement. and I said, Absolutely, he's down in Florida, some Navy base, I forget the name of the Navy base though. anyway, some crazy airbase. But I said, sure, I'll come down there. and so we go to his retirement, you know, do the formal retirement thing. It was great. I think there were like forty-six admirals or some nonsense there because that's just how how impactful of a of a chaplain he was or is still. But then we all a bunch of us went out at his house and we played this video. And Susan Van Pay played this great video, and it was just a picture of his time with 110. And the background was Black Betty. It was great. What a great song. Anyway, it's actually a terrible song. And it's like a it's a horrible song. But we got some pretty great memories out of it. man, I think we're at the end. I'm right out of hour. Huh. So the last question, well there's a thing there about not so funny story. We should've talked about the Fort Bragg thing, recruiting duty, lowest point of my life. the last thing is list any other organizations or topics that you're passionate about. Obviously this podcast. I pray to God every day that this thing re that that I'm touching, that God is touching someone through me. Man I've had some great experiences in my life, I've had some terrible experiences in my life. The one constant through it all. has been God protecting me even when man even when I wasn't doing the things I was supposed to be doing. So that's that's just amazing to I I hope and I pray every day that this podcast does something for somebody outside of these four walls. and then the last thing I'll talk about is the American Legion. So for veterans, so I am a member of the American Legion Post here in Acad, South Carolina. here's what I will tell you. When you leave the military, it's hard. a friend of mine posted a meme on the Facebook the other day that said it said I wanna go back to dealing with military stupid because civilian stupid I I can't stand it. I can't tolerate it. and man that's so true. Here's what I'll tell you. It doesn't matter if you do four years or 40 years, right? We're all a different those that the those that haven't put on the uniform don't get it, right? And it's hard. That transition is hard. Even for the people that are like, man, I can't wait to get out. They get out, and they're like, Man, this is hard. This is what I'll tell you. There's two groups that you need to find. The first is you need to find your church. It could be a big brick church. It could be a little tiny country church. It could be seven or eight folks meeting in somebody's living room on a Sunday. You know, the Bible says where there are two or more gathered in his name, he'll be there, right? Find your church. Find those folks that are gonna that are going to help build you in Christ. The second thing I'll tell you to do is find a veteran service organization that works for you. I like the American Legion. Our local post is great. There's a lot of good Christian folks in it. They do a lot of things in the community. We do a lot of things for youth. Obviously, I like taking care of kids. But find that type of organization. And it might I I'd go to three or four different ones. Find the one that works for you, right? 'Cause they don't work for the not all of them work for everybody. you know, I remember the Marine Corps League, I the Marine Corps League, I love hanging out with Marines. but I don't get the same thing out of the Marine Corps League that I get out of the American Legion. same thing for the VFW, the DAV, man, there's there's there's bunches of right? but find those two organizations, find your church, find your veteran service organization. Do not stop serving. God still has a purpose for your life, right? Do not be Elijah asking God to come get you. Because trust me, when it's your time, he's gonna come get you. In the meantime, work every single day like David for the glory of God. And that means find a local church, find a veterans organization, do things to continue to serve. and I think guys, that's where I'm gonna end. please feel free to to comment, tell me where I'm wrong. I know I said Isaiah earlier, man. see I told you I can't, it's weird doing it by myself. tell me where I'm wrong, leave some comments. If you like it, tell us you like it. If you don't like it, tell us you don't like it. Tell us what we could do better. if you just want to praise him, man, I encourage you to do that. if you want to come join us for for an episode, leave us a comment, shoot us a message. we'd love to have you. and with that, guys, we'll see you next time. Thanks.