Latest / The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show / The Karol Markowicz Show: Former Green Beret C.T. Hill Warns: America Is One Generation Away From Losing Freedom

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The Karol Markowicz Show: Former Green Beret C.T. Hill Warns: America Is One Generation Away From Losing Freedom · The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: My guest today is C.T. Hill.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: C.T.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Is a special forces veteran and senior operations professional with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: over a decade and a half of experience in U.S.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Army special operations. He has a new book out called
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The Remnant War, Ashes of the Eagle, Book One. It's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: out now on Amazon. Make sure you pick it up.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: On X, he is Green Beret Naptime. That's at GBNT1952
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  Speaker 1: and really one of my favorite accounts. Hi, CT. So
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: nice to have you on.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hey, how are you doing?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So before we get into your book, tell me how
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  Speaker 1: you became Green Beret Naptime. And you have a pretty
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  Speaker 1: big account. How did this all happen for you?
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  Speaker 2: It kind of just happened by chance, honestly. It I
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  Speaker 2: just like to argue if that's not apparent from my account. So, uh, sometimes,
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  Speaker 2: so that was kind of my outlet. So I don't
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: argue with, you know, all the, uh, the people that
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: are actually in my life. I would just argue with
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: strangers on the internet. And, uh, and then a few
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: things happened and I did some analysis on, you know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: some of like the Labelsberger bombing and then some other things. And, and, uh,
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  Speaker 2: from there, it just kind of just steadily grew followers
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and kind of grew into this, what it is now. And, um,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: you know, like I said, when I started it, it wasn't,
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  Speaker 2: Green Beret Naptime is actually a kind of a inside
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: joke to Green Berets. It's not, uh, it's not supposed
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to be like a real cool name or anything. What
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: does it mean? Uh, so it's, it's kind of like the,
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  Speaker 2: the day after, you know, so the, the duty day,
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  Speaker 2: the next day of work, which could be like a
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Tuesday or Wednesday, uh, or, you know, you're tired and, uh,
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  Speaker 2: slightly maybe hungover from a night of, you know, the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: rock star status of being a Green Beret. Yeah. You
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: need a Green Beret nap time, a GBNT during the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: middle of the day. I see. You know, so you
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: can keep working the rest of the day. So it's
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: just a joke. It's not really anything that's like real.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like we're doing something that is taxing
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: or something that we don't really want to do. Like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: I could really use a GBNT right now.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm.
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  Speaker 1: Going to start using that.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I could really use a GBNT. Yeah, GBNT. It's like
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  Speaker 2: the answer to all the problems, basically, in the SF
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: world anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I love it. So it was it was just a
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  Speaker 2: joke about that. And then, like I said, it kind
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  Speaker 2: of blew up and I was just like, well, we'll
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: stick with it. It's good.
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  Speaker 1: Did you always want to go into the military?
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  Speaker 2: So, no, I actually joined a little late. I joined
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  Speaker 2: I turned 24 when I was in basic training, actually.
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  Speaker 2: So I went to college, went to Texas Tech and
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  Speaker 2: then couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. Couldn't
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: change majors a few times and then dropped. tried a
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: few different jobs after that. And then finally it was like,
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  Speaker 2: you know what? I've, I've wanted to join, but I've
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  Speaker 2: always just kind of like not, not done it. Right.
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  Speaker 2: I've actually put my mind to it and went and
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  Speaker 2: joined and went the, went the Green Beret route and
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: made it. Here we are.
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  Speaker 1: So is the remnant war based on your time in
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  Speaker 1: the military? Like, is it true to life?
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  Speaker 2: So, no, it's a, it's fiction. Um, now I do,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: obviously I take, you know, my experiences. Uh, the, the novel,
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  Speaker 2: the first novel actually starts in Niger where I was deployed. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: so that was an easy, you know, transition to kind
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  Speaker 2: of write a fiction, uh, piece about it there. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the characters are loosely based off of just
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  Speaker 2: like not, not any one person that I've ever worked with,
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  Speaker 2: just multiple people. And then just kind of how I wanted,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it all to kind of.
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  Speaker 1: None of your friends are going to read it and
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  Speaker 1: be like, wait a minute.
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  Speaker 2: No, probably not. I mean, I guess they could draw whatever,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: you know, comparisons they want to, and maybe, maybe there
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: are a few, but, um, But at the same time,
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  Speaker 2: it's mostly based off of just, you know, in general, how,
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  Speaker 2: not only how I see grim berets, but how I
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: guess the world kind of sees them as well.
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  Speaker 1: Is The Remnant War your first book?
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  Speaker 2: I've written quite a few books. I had one published.
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  Speaker 2: I took it down because it was, so it's a
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: horse and sword fantasy, you know, back in the, I
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: wrote that one years and years ago. And it was,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: it got published and then it was a small publisher
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  Speaker 2: and the publisher went under about, six months after it
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: came out. So it was kind of just kind of
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: flapped there for a while. I've re-edited it a little
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: bit and changed it. So I'll put that out at
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: some point. But this is the first, well, this is
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  Speaker 2: the first completed series in this kind of genre. I've
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: done some other work in this genre before, but really
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  Speaker 2: I was like, I always write about medieval times and
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: these other kind of things. And I was like, I
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  Speaker 2: kind of want to write about what I actually know. And,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I don't have to make up every aspect
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  Speaker 2: of the story at that point. Right.
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  Speaker 1: So you call it The Remnant War, Ashes of the Eagle,
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  Speaker 1: book one. How many books will there be?
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  Speaker 2: Right now, probably five. But when I first started and
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: before I finished the first book and kind of had
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: planned everything out, it was only going to be four.
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  Speaker 2: But now it's definitely going to be five, by the way,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: just the way the first book kind of ended up.
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  Speaker 2: And I cut a ton out of the first book
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  Speaker 2: because it was just, it was really, it was, it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: already kind of long and it's, it was even longer before. So, um,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, Ashes of the Eagles, the series and, um,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the remnant wars that the first kind of the intro
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: novel to it. And then it goes, it moves on
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  Speaker 2: from there with the, the kind of the premise, the,
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  Speaker 2: you know, what, what would happen if the United States
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  Speaker 2: government was, you know, we're not going to get attacked
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  Speaker 2: or taken over by, you know, China and that, that like, uh, the, uh,
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  Speaker 2: Red Dawn or any of those other kind of previous
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  Speaker 2: things we've seen. What could happen, though, is tyrannical people could,
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  Speaker 2: you know, get in power and change things that aren't
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be changed with our Constitution and things. So
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a look at that. Like, how do
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  Speaker 2: we react if the levers of power are taken by
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: people that are tyrannical or evil?
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  Speaker 1: How much of that do you worry about in real life?
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  Speaker 2: Um, so yeah, it's, it's fiction and I'll, I'll stand
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: by the fact that it's fiction, but it, it, I
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: think it has a lot of parallels to reality, the
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: reality that we kind of see today. Um, and then
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  Speaker 2: it's just kind of my view of how everything could
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  Speaker 2: go if certain, you know, if certain things were to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: happen in certain ways. Um, so I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: give too, you know, I don't want to, I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to, and again, it's still fiction, so it's, it's
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  Speaker 2: no spoilers, but it is, yeah, it's, I would say
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  Speaker 2: my expertise and just my understanding of the world kind
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  Speaker 2: of went into shaping the novel. So it's not just
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  Speaker 2: made out of left field or anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: Will people recognize the guy that they know from the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Green Beret Naptime account in the book?
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  Speaker 2: I do. I hid some Easter eggs in there for sure.
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  Speaker 2: So for anyone that kind of follows me and knows
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: how I talk and how I do things, hopefully they'll
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: pick up on them and be like, ah, I got it. Uh,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: but there's little subtle things here and there, but again,
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  Speaker 2: it's the, the different, um, the different characters are based
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  Speaker 2: off of different, you know, different aspects of people that
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  Speaker 2: I've worked with and then, you know, just, just people
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  Speaker 2: that I've seen and then just kind of just to
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  Speaker 2: make them characters as well. So.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mostly enjoy covering on your ex account?
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  Speaker 1: Like what is your, do you, do you feel like
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  Speaker 1: you have a beat? Do things that you come, that
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: come up for you again and again?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of it's military based. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of my following is either veterans or, you know, active
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  Speaker 2: duty military, former military in some aspect, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: law enforcement, too. So stuff like that. I think I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, from a geopolitical standpoint, I have a I
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  Speaker 2: have a kind of different view of the world than
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people do. I the last thing I
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  Speaker 2: did in the Army was I taught a managed a
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: course that kind of it does higher level planning for
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  Speaker 2: special operations uh like theater level campaigns so if you're
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  Speaker 2: going to take over you know this country had a
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: dictator take it over and now we need to liberate
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  Speaker 2: it back to the people kind of thing and working
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  Speaker 2: in that role really opened my eyes to like oh
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  Speaker 2: this is how the world actually works you know like
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  Speaker 2: this move by trump or by whoever by whatever president's
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  Speaker 2: in or or by the secretary of defense or by
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: the state department uh it's significant because of these reasons
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  Speaker 2: that like most people don't know about right and and
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: so kind of understanding that, I think that's kind of my, like,
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  Speaker 2: I think that's what a lot of people like about
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  Speaker 2: my account, but I also just get, I also am
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  Speaker 2: not afraid to get into the weeds and like hash
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  Speaker 2: it out with these people that are just obviously telling
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  Speaker 2: lies and are pushing things that aren't true. So, and
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  Speaker 2: I think that that's important too, because you have a
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  Speaker 2: lot of, I like respect a ton of people on there,
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  Speaker 2: but some people are not willing to like get down
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  Speaker 2: and sling a little bit of mud and, and, I
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  Speaker 2: don't have any problem doing that with them.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think non-military people misunderstand about the military experience?
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And maybe from the book, something, or it could be
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: just from your personal experience.
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  Speaker 2: I think the main thing is just that most people,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, there's certain people that have had a near-death
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  Speaker 2: experience just in everyday civilian life, and it happens, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that once you've been in a situation
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  Speaker 2: where you actually could die and it's not just that
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  Speaker 2: you could die, but like people are actively trying to
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: kill you in that situation. It just kind of changes
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the way you view the world and the way you
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: view things in a way that can't be explained or
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: understood by someone that hasn't been in those shoes. So,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: and obviously there's some military people that don't even experience
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  Speaker 2: that depending on what their role is. And again, it's
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  Speaker 2: not to take anything away from anybody else. It's just,
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  Speaker 2: We have a we have a, you know, combat veterans
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  Speaker 2: have a unique perspective of of just just life in
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  Speaker 2: general because of that addition to the to the equation.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that that's kind of like the main
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  Speaker 2: thing that most and just a lot of a lot
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  Speaker 2: of especially Americans, a lot of Americans just, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they'll do there's hard work. But a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: have never pushed themselves beyond the point where they were
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  Speaker 2: convinced that they couldn't go or they couldn't do anything. Right.
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  Speaker 2: And the training and some of the stuff that I've
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  Speaker 2: been through and you know, that other Green Berets or
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: that SEALs go through or that, you know, any other
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  Speaker 2: special operations kind of go through, it lets you learn
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  Speaker 2: something about yourself you didn't know beforehand, which then gives
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  Speaker 2: you a different perspective about, you know, just life in general.
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  Speaker 1: So interesting. You know, my middle son, he's 13. I
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: think he floated the idea of going to the military,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like almost to shock me, like, you know, Jewish mom,
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  Speaker 1: I was definitely going to say no or something. And
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I think that would be amazing for you.
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  Speaker 1: I could totally see you doing this. And I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if there just isn't enough communication to the youth that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the military is something you should do. The military is
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  Speaker 1: not just a good, you know, something good for the country,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: but it's a good experience for you yourself. Like, do
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  Speaker 1: you feel like we lack that or maybe it just
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  Speaker 1: doesn't reach my corner of the universe?
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  Speaker 2: No, we do for sure. I mean, 1% of our
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: population does. serves at any given time. So, um, if
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: you count all the veterans in, then you're talking about
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  Speaker 2: maybe five to 6% of the entire population. So it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's not a vast, you know, it's not a very
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: big group of people at all. And I think, yes,
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  Speaker 2: I think one, it's good, especially it's good for, for
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  Speaker 2: males that, um, that were like me that don't understand
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  Speaker 2: that or didn't have like a plan and nothing that
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  Speaker 2: they saw in school or some of the, none of
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  Speaker 2: that really just gave them the purpose that they were
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  Speaker 2: really searching for. And that's what the military gave me.
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  Speaker 2: It gave me purpose. And it also gave me structure
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  Speaker 2: and stability. And when you're younger and you're trying to
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  Speaker 2: figure out life, it's a really good thing, actually. Because,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: you know, no, I'm not going to go do this,
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  Speaker 2: you know, destructive thing. Because if I got caught doing it,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: my sergeant tomorrow would beat me. You know, so just
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: the consequences that go along with that. And it matures people.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: And it gives... a lot of people too, it gives
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  Speaker 2: a lot of camaraderie and, you know, the, the battle
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  Speaker 2: buddy that you have next to you is important. And so, and,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and a lot of people realize you don't have to
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  Speaker 2: do it forever. You know, you could do a three
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: year enlistment and do your thing and get out, or
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you could, you could go to college, you could commission
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  Speaker 2: for a few years and you could, you could do
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  Speaker 2: your time and you could get out and you, you
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: have a network that is built from that. And then,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's what people, people, I think, underestimate
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  Speaker 2: how important relationships are.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, making relationships with people, even if, you know,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: so even some people you disagree with, but that you
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: have to do that in the military because the military
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: is just a melting pot of the country put together.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: And you might be dealing with somebody from Rhode Island,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: you know, and I'm from Texas and you have no
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: idea what they're, you know, how they grew up or
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: how different things were, but you have to work with them.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: You have to figure it out.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And so it's pretty different.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, then I assume so. I just, that was
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: just the first one that came to my mind. I
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: was watching Family Guy earlier, you know, so.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Is there something that you want people to take away
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: from your book, The Remnant War, Ashes of the Eagle,
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  Speaker 1: book one? And I know it's going to be a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: five book series and I know it's, you know, it's
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: for entertainment. But is there like a lesson that you
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: want people to gain from it and to leave after
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: having read it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the main thing is that it's been
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: said before, but we're one generation away from losing freedoms.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: And that's just the reality of how life is. We've
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: seen it. The United States has done well since its inception.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: But I think people would even argue today that the
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: United States of today is far less free than it was, say,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: 150 years ago. And, you know, there's there's all kinds
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: of nuance we could talk about in that, but it's
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: still one of the best, it's still the best country
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in the world and one of the, you know, freest
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: and best countries that you could do anything in, in
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: the world. But just how quickly that could be gone
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: if the wrong people got in charge that, you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: and what I always kind of bring it back to
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: is just collectivist people who will put a collective above
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: the individual are always going to do what's better for
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: that collective, which means they're going to have to leave
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: out or exclude or, or deal with the individual that
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: dissents against that. And so anytime you're looking at the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: greater good versus the one person, right? It's a way
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: to morally argue for terrible things just because it would
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: help more people, right? And that is a really scary
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: train of thought. So I think that's really kind of
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: what the book shows you. And it shows you that,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you know, these people... that are going to push this
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: kind of things. They're not, they don't think of themselves
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: as evil. Like, like they don't think of themselves like, Oh,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: I'm the next Hitler. They, they, a lot of them
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: will actually genuinely think that what they're doing is helping.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, Hitler, I'm sure thought what he was doing
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: was good.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: You know, right. And so retiring in history thinks they're
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: doing good.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Right. And so they, they justify these terrible things for
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the ultimate greater good or for the utopia that it's
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: going to build and all these things. And that's just
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: not reality. The reality is, is that the U S
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: constitution is, has created the freest and best country on
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: this earth and diminishing that would, would take a chance
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: of ruining it for, for the entire country. So, and
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: then if the entire country is ruined, then kind of
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the world's ruined. Cause we're really the last, you know,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: best hope. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, hopefully that's what people
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: take away from it. And, and my idea for it,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: it's obviously it's got, it's got action. It's a thriller. Um,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: it's a, what I'm calling is a near future military epic,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: which the epic is just because it's, it's long, right?
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: It's a long story that has a lot to go through. And,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: but it is a thriller in the sense at same
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: time too, it moves quickly. There's, you're constantly having to
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: problem solve or, well, the characters are constantly problem solving
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: and figuring out how to, to get past this next,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: you know, gate or next thing that's happening. But I
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: wanted to give a realistic, you know, obviously there's a
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: little bit of, preach you know a little fun because
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: it's it has to be a good novel at the
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: same time right but it's far more realistic in how
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: you know tactics would unfold and how unconventional warfare would
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: unfold and and what it would really take to kind
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: of accomplish some of these things so i think that
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: hopefully people could you know one they see the how
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: bad it could all get if we you know don't
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: pay attention and then also how would we fix this
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: if it did happen One of.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: The questions I ask all of my guests this season is,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: what is one thing you've changed your opinion on? Do
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: you have something?
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Probably Ukraine. I was staunchly against, you know, how much
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: we helped Ukraine and all the things. I'm still, obviously,
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: there's nuance involved with, you know, how much was accountable,
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: how much money was just given to them, you know,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: all these different things. We could talk about that all
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: day long. But I do think that there was a
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: lot of, and everyone, you know, they talk about the
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Russia propaganda and they're like, oh, it's just Russia, Russia, Russia.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And that's just a thing now. And yes, it has
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: been utilized in a, I guess, a way to make,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: you know, to cover up other things. But Russia is
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: not a friend to the United States. Definitely not. It's adversarial. And,
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: you know, in Ukraine, though, some people will talk about
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: the corruption that's there and all these other things. I mean,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, you still have the
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: side of NATO and the side, that side fighting what,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: you know, what is, is potentially a very destructive force
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: from Russia. So that would probably be the main thing
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: that I've kind of changed my views on. I'm far
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: more pro Ukraine today than I was three or four
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: years ago.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Wow. So it's funny. I mean, I'm, I was born
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: in Russia in the Soviet union. Um, so I am
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: no lover of Russia at all. Uh, and I, My
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: feeling on that war is that we should help. And
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I guess maybe not as much as
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: like the real pro-Ukraine hawks thought. But I was always
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: rooting for Ukraine. That to me is like such an
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: easy one. Like you don't find you could argue America
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: shouldn't send aid or whatever, like all that kind of
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: stuff is a is an argument I think we can have.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: But not to want Ukraine to win, that's crazy. That's
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: absolutely bonkers. To want Russia to take over Ukraine and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: imagine that they're not going to keep going is, you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: crazy talk.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: And I was never like, I want Russia to win. Right.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: That wasn't a thought process. It was more just I
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: didn't want to be involved at all. Right.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Or like they're both the same or whatever, but they're not.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: They're not. And again, there's nuance involved with everything, but...
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Is Ukraine an adversarial state towards NATO and the United
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: States interests? No, it's really not. So when you kind
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: of boil it down to that just basic question there,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: then it makes it a lot easier to just understand. Again, yeah,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: we could talk about maybe we shouldn't give as much
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: aid or maybe there are certain things we could do differently.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: That's all fine. But yeah, I think that's probably my
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: main thing I've kind of changed on. Interesting.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I haven't had that answer before. So that's very, very interesting.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Give me something you've experienced recently that you've considered the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: absolute best. I mean, it could be anything. Best restaurant,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: best book, anything at all.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, that's a tough one. The Red Rising series.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: I read a lot of books, if you can't tell.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of an interest of mine. So the
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Red Rising series, this is really cool. It's a futuristic
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: view of like the universe. our solar system is colonized.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I think my daughter was reading that actually.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: My 16 year old. It's like feudalism, but in the future.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: So it's like, we went back to the kind of
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: might is right type of, it's just, it's, it's about,
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: you know, how, again, it's good people fighting tyrannical people
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: and all this stuff, but it's just the way that,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: the way that the novel unfolds and everything is just really,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: really cool. So that's a really cool one. And then the,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard of the Dungeon Crawler
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Carl series that is recent. So I'm reading the last
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: one of those right now too. And that's that series
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: is super cool it's like a it's the world aliens
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: exist and the world gets turned into this video game
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: where they go into a dungeon and you have to
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: you're a crawler is is the you're fighting back against
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the dungeon dungeon and you have to go do certain
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: things to make it to the next level and so
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: on so it kind of just turned everything into a
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: video game it's a really cool concept um How do
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: you have time to read so much?
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: How does this work? I want time.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: You have to set aside. I got to set aside
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: time for certain things, you know, all the time. Just
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: like I'm going to work for X amount of hours
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: on this. And then I'm going to take a break.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I'm going to read for 30 minutes and then, you know,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: go on. I do a lot of audiobook.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Right before Green Beret nap time.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So right before GB & T, right? Absolutely.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I've loved this conversation. I always thought your account was
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: super cool. And I'm glad I got to know you
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: a little bit. Leave us here with your best tip
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Just do things. You know, you don't have to ask
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: permission to do a lot of things. A lot of
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: people are scared of change or scared to just try something.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: And then they put something off and then they don't
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: do it and then they regret it for the rest
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: of their lives. And, you know, I didn't, you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: becoming a Green Beret and doing all the things that
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: I've done now was never my initial thought, right? It
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: was just like, I need I need something and I
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: got to figure out what it is and I'm going
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: to go do it. So find that, you know, find
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: that thing that you need in your life that and
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: go do it. And and don't be afraid of failure.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: That'd be the other thing, too, because, you know, you're
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: going to fail at things. I have actually when I
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: was writing and trying to do stuff through publishers, I
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: have an entire folder that's for all of my all
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: my my rejection letters from publishers and agents and I
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: probably have, there's probably like 350 emails in there. Yeah,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I keep them all. Because it's a reminder. They're like, hey,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: you know, just because this person didn't think you were
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: good enough doesn't mean that you aren't good enough. And
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: you just got to keep trying. So, yeah.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I've loved this conversation. Thank you so much for
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: coming on. He is C.T.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Hill.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Check him out on X at Green Beret Naptime, GBNT 1952.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And get his new book on Amazon, The Remnant War,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Ashes of the Eagle, Book 1. Thank you so much
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: for coming on, C.T.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.