The Big Tex Ordnance Podcast

Smoke & Standards: A Ranger's Tale of Teaching the Next Generation

The BTO Crew Season 3 Episode 110

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"When you got a barrel of monkeys, you put a gorilla in charge." With these words, a drill sergeant forever shaped Michael Megan's understanding of leadership – wisdom he now passes to the next generation of military officers at Texas A&M University.

Megan brings over 13 years of experience from the prestigious 75th Ranger Regiment to his role as Senior Enlisted Advisor for Rudder's Company, an elite organization within Texas A&M's Army ROTC program named after James Earl Rudder, former university president and WWII Ranger commander. His transition from special operations to academia wasn't merely a career move but a mission to shape future officers and strengthen the critical officer-NCO relationship that underpins military effectiveness.

Throughout our conversation, Megan reveals what truly makes elite units exceptional – not flashy tactics or equipment, but relentless accountability and fundamentals. "The regiment just gets back to the basics constantly," he explains, highlighting how the organization's unique structure with lower-enlisted personnel creates both its greatest strength and challenge. His candid reflections on the selection process, the difficulty of maintaining standards, and the brotherhood that develops through shared hardship offer rare insights into one of America's premier fighting forces.

Perhaps most fascinating is Megan's ability to identify tactical patterns across different domains – drawing direct parallels between military operations, football strategies, and combat sports techniques. This pattern recognition helps him teach complex concepts by meeting cadets where they are, using familiar frameworks to explain unfamiliar tactics. Under his guidance, Texas A&M's Ranger Challenge team has secured back-to-back national championships, outperforming hundreds of ROTC programs nationwide.

Whether you're fascinated by military culture, leadership development, or the psychological elements of high-performance teams, this episode offers valuable insights applicable far beyond the battlefield. Follow Megan's continuing mission to prepare the next generation through his "Ranger U" podcast, available on all major platforms.


Ranger U Podcast: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/michael-meegan1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r.a.n.g.e.r.u/
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Speaker 1:

I tried to get fired but he told me he said Megan, come here, he goes. You know why you're the platoon guy. I was like negative drill sergeant. I wish I wasn't. He was like shut the fuck up, listen to me, he goes. When you got a barrel of monkeys, you put a gorilla in charge. I was like okay. He was like so, do whatever you got to do. I'm like what do you mean by that? People act up, yeah, like I'll close the door yeah, welcome to the big text ordinance podcast.

Speaker 2:

I'm ike. Co-hosts today are ian and beto and then our guest today is mike vegan from Texas A&M ROTC program up there, just down the road, kind of local to us. So yeah, he's coming down from Texas A&M today and just going to chat with us for a bit. So I'll let you go ahead and take it away. Give us a little bit about your background, kind of how you ended up where you are now, and just kind of give us the rundown on that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sir, I appreciate you guys having me. Uh, first off, the setups, uh, really awesome. If I, uh, if I had this setup, I would be a much more consistent podcaster. I'll tell you that right now, cause, uh, doing those solo shows, man, you speak into the ether and you're like is anybody listening? Does anybody care? Is? It just me getting high on farts over here.

Speaker 1:

No I um no, I appreciate that. Thanks for having me down today. Yeah, so, um, I uh hello everyone out there. I'm sorry, first class. Michael Vincent, megan, I uh I am the uh rudders uh company.

Speaker 1:

Uh rudders Rangers is a is a um organization within uh army, rotc at Texas A&M. I am their senior enlisted advisor I guess that's the best way that you could put it. That company has been around since 1959. It's named after the namesake of James Earl Rutter, the university president and also the former commander of 2nd Ranger Battalion in World War II. Actually hit the beaches at D-Day, all that stuff like that. That's the namesake of the place For me. I take a lot of pride in that organization and what we do there. Obviously, we also have our Ranger Challenge team that is nested within the company as well. I've been at that assignment now for two years, starting year number three.

Speaker 1:

Prior to that, I was with the 75th Ranger Regiment for my entire career out there. At the time when I was there it was Fort Benning. It is now called Fort Moore, went there in 2009 when I joined up and never left until 2022. I was there a while. I was there with Charlie Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion and then across the street at Regimental Special Troops Battalion, at Regimental, at Regimental Special Troops Battalion, at Regimental Selection and Training Company sorry, rstc as a pre-ranger instructor for a couple of years. Then I came back to 3rd Ranger Battalion with Headquarters Headquarters Company and then finished out my time with Delta Company, serving in in the, serving in the sniper platoon, and then uh, with uh, the headquarters element there before taking the position uh at Texas A&M.

Speaker 1:

So, um, that's kind of the synopsis, short cliff notes. You know of uh, of the, the career so far, um, originally from Florida, so Florida man, alive and well here, uh, you knew I was going to be a wild boy as a, uh, as a native Floridian. Um and uh, married, got two beautiful kids and, um, I've been dragging them through the mud of my career ever since. But they're very supportive most days, um and uh and and they allow me to, they allow me to play fast, as you say, right, they allow me to get in there and do what I do. So how does that?

Speaker 3:

work from, like going from the regiment and then to senior list of advisor at? Is that like a that you pick that job, or the army picked that job for you?

Speaker 1:

So I did. Actually, I'm glad you asked that question. So I got to a point in regiment where, I'll be honest, you know, like, I hit my limit of advance, right, like everybody has their expiration date in that unit nature of it, right, um, like you, you are probably about as likely to run into an active NFL player as you are to run into an active U S army Ranger Right, so there's not so many slots. Right, there's not so many slots. So it comes to a point where there is, you know, a war and a competition for talent and some people understand that, like yours truly, and I knew I was at my time and I wanted to still go and be impactful somewhere else, right, and so in in the regiment, uh, at a certain point in time, uh, they, they have a saying right, or a charge to go live the charter, right, we're talking about, uh, general Abrams charter, which was you were supposed to take originally your skills from the Ranger regiment and then go make the army better, a better army.

Speaker 1:

Right, you were supposed to go make an impact somewhere else right now, over the early on, right before the global war on terror. That's exactly what happened. People did very short term turns in the range of regiment and then they would go and serve in other capacities, do those kinds of things.

Speaker 1:

Well, the GWAT kicked off and the regiment kept finding ways to make itself very, very useful. So they kept that band together for longer and longer. And now you're seeing, you know, people able to stay in the regiment for longer amounts of time. But for me, I I knew I wanted to continue to be impactful, right, I I've told people this over the years that either ETS out of the regiment or PCS somewhere else, don't stop being a Ranger. Like, don't stop being a Ranger, don't stop being what made you who you are and made you successful in this organization. Take it with you, whether that's in the army, out of the army, whether you're coaching little league, I don't give a shit. What you're doing. Right, like, continue to be that guy, right. So that's what I wanted to do and really make an impact in a way that I thought would pay dividends in across the force. Right, and that for me is 100% ROTC. You, you get them while they're young. Right, you're able to show what a good officer and NCO relationship should look like for the force. Um, and be able to be be impactful on them.

Speaker 1:

Right, like, there's a lot of non-commissioned officers in the list of guys complain about officer this and officer that. This field grade fucking sucks and this PL is clueless. You know Well, did we create that problem? You know well, did we create that problem? I think we had a much bigger hand in it than I think you know NCOs and enlisted might want to admit, because who was shaping them right? Who was guiding them? Like? You're right, they don't know shit because they didn't run into the, the the correct non-commissioned officer to show them the ropes at this point, right, and so it builds that distrust which hurts our force into the the correct non-commissioned officer to show them the ropes at this point, right, and so it builds that distrust which hurts our force. So I wanted to go somewhere where we could get at that.

Speaker 3:

That's why you see, I mean so many officers that go from you know enlisted, to officer side that are better officers because they were ncos prior, served xyz as a e3, e5, whatever, before going to that officer side. I mean, that's my experience with it. And then you have the dudes that come straight to the officer side. They have so much more learning to do because they've never experienced that before.

Speaker 1:

Yep so 100, yeah, 100, so yeah, and, and, of course, if I was going to do that job right, then so if I was going to, if I was going to do that job right, then so if I was going to, if I was going to do that job, at you know, texas A&M just was the most logical, yeah, most logical spot.

Speaker 4:

Most logical spot. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I really. I didn't know anything about it. I was clueless, you know, when it came to like cadet, command, ROTC, any of that shit.

Speaker 4:

Like you know, I'm I don't know what the fuck's going on here right, but, like you know, I knew that texas a&m was prestigious right, you know, like you uh before

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah exactly, like you know, I got. I'm a big college football guy too, right. So, like you know, you're up to get the free tickets. I killed Mike Megan. I took all this stuff. Um no, the uh. But you know you, you would see the core cadets and and I remember like even being a young kid, 10 years old, you know you'd turn on the TV, see Texas A&M on TV. I always kind of dug it Like I always thought it was kind of cool and I wasn't like a fan from they weren't my team but, like you know, you see the core cadets.

Speaker 1:

I remember my dad saying like that's a, that's a military school. He didn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Speaker 1:

But like you know, you turn around and you see Datwin out there cracking people. You see these cadets forgetting I could get behind it. Like I was down with it, right. So like I've never. I've never had any ill will towards the institution and I was like, well, if you're going to do it, then do it big. You know, outside of a service Academy, texas A&M produces, you know, uh or commissions at the highest rate outside of the service academy let's say what's what's a and m look like compared to like west point, the citadel right yeah so the citadel and vmi and those schools are actually all in the same brigade as texas a and m.

Speaker 1:

It's considered a senior military college. Yeah, because it has a core of cadets right, so okay so every branch is represented.

Speaker 1:

and then they have a cadet corps within the college which makes it a senior military college. At that point, with texas a&m um, because of the sheer numbers and the sheer size of the corps of cadets it's approaching 3 000 at this point in time you know we've got somewhere in the neighborhood of about 600 in Army. Rotc Rutter's company starts off with 200 every year and then we a trip down usually to about 130 to 150 for various reasons. You know, some people, a new splash, it ain't fucking for everybody.

Speaker 3:

Are they going to Ranger School once they take commission right away?

Speaker 1:

So, or while they're at A&Mm, no so they don't do that anymore. They used to do that okay, used to be able to go to ranger school as a cadet, but they stopped doing. That is that? Is there an interesting story behind that at all?

Speaker 3:

uh, people sucked at patrols and they were there for fucking ever, you know.

Speaker 4:

So, like you, know, if you can't do it in like two months over the summer you're kind of missing classes and shit.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, that's, that's kind of that's what it was, a timing thing. So now you know they'll commission, they'll go to their basic leadership courses. You know infantry, I Bullock, armor a Bullock, you know something like that, right, whatever they branch commission into. And then, yeah, ranger School may be in their future. For my infantry guys it absolutely is in your future because there's new policy now that basically states you are going to be at Fort Moore until you get a Ranger tab, or I break you right as the Department of the army, like there will be, and that's all.

Speaker 3:

New commissioned officers are going to infantry specifically. Okay, infantry, specifically Okay Cause we'll go to Bullock at yeah, at um Benning, yeah Cause like don't are the days of, you know, infantry PLs that don't have their shit. Yeah Right, you'll, you'll just, you'll be there until you get it, until you get broken or they find some other use for you and you're going to go pro in something else.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly Right. Motor T yeah, exactly so. There's never been, honestly, a bigger premium on being successful at Ranger school. And so shameless plug Ranger, you right, that's a. That's my show, Um and uh. And Instagram, right.

Speaker 1:

Holla at me and uh so you know, having done the time at pre Ranger and now at ROTC, um, you know, I, I had given these, um, you know I, I had given these, these classes and these blocks of instruction over and over and over and over and, um, you know, probably pitched a raid class 200 times by now, you know. And um, I started to think to myself like, okay, I was young and completely fucking clueless at one time. Um, I was reading through my Ranger handbook with no clue what that actually meant, until the experience came along with it. Right, and when you're a private and battalion, if you're not sitting in that locker reading your Ranger handbook and prepared to get the question that they're going to inevitably ask you wrong so they can fuck you up.

Speaker 1:

Um, at some point in time, right, uh, you became familiarized with that ranger handbook, but you didn't really know what it really meant. Right, it would say the performance step, but it didn't really explain it, didn't? Yeah, you know the words, but not the message exactly it? It's the what, not the how, right, exactly, it's the what, not the how, right? And so that's what I wanted to kind of bring as an instructor I believe that was our job was the how, and then if we get to the real graduate level, thinking the why Right? So the what is there, I'm going to teach you how and tell you why Right, it's important.

Speaker 1:

So I was like, hey, you know, what would have really helped is like an audio book that I could have like followed along in this thing, so that's, that's kind of where Ranger you started, like that's, that's, um, that's what I've done on the podcast side of the house and I'll tell you a hundred percent. I'll tell you this right now I'm the most inconsistent podcaster on the planet.

Speaker 3:

I'll put one out.

Speaker 1:

It'll be like three weeks. I'll do another one A month later. I got this one and then I do two in a week. You know it's like it's all over the place because it's just the schedule. Like I, you know, unfortunately like I said, I wish I had something like this. I could talk to people about this shit.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, it's just me bunk up you you know, staring at myself in the computer, not not doing video because of rambling out about something. That would be my problem. I would just go off on tangents if I was by myself. Yeah, yeah, have to cut four hours of this episode off definitely, definitely have to have the guided notes for it actually everything's redacted, I probably shouldn't release this to the public. We're just gonna delete it and blacklist.

Speaker 1:

Now the good news I the good news is I have the Ranger handbook right, so I'm sitting there just kind of oh, this is what this means, guys Listen up Makes the show sound really boring.

Speaker 1:

I try to do a decent job with it, but yeah, Anyway, that's where that all kind of came from. To start that up, Like I said, with the importance now on ranger school, it's huge. And so at rudder's company, you know, we try to prepare them for future success, like beyond just the cadet command requirements, beyond just the cadet summer training requirements, trying to set them up for success that will carry them through their basic leadership courses, things like ranger school, sapper school, any schoolhouse that has some sort of patrolling in it, right, and then on and on. Because if we want to get these great young men and women that we've spent the last couple of years developing, well, there are some gates to making it to where you want to go to really make an impact, and those school houses are those gates and so you got to get through that. So I think it's, you know, important.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, how was your uh personally? How was your transition from the regiment to uh, to your, your current position?

Speaker 1:

Man going to get real for a minute. Uh yeah, it was, it was uh, I would lie if I said it wasn't tough. Yeah, you know, I mean it. You're talking about growing up in a culture and being in a place for over a decade and then leaving it all behind. Yeah, so not only you know, leave it all behind in terms of you know, the, the unit, the, the structure, the job, Right, but also then all those relationships, all your buddies, all your friends, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Okay, Social media made the world smaller, but it's not, it's not the same and uh, and then picking up from where, like we are, you know, like tribally affiliated, right in the southeast, like that's, that's where we're at, yeah, and then coming out here where you don't know a soul, yeah right, you get into the gig, um, and you know, you just kind of you have some like Jesus Christ moments. You know you're kind, of like you're kind of looking around like this is how okay, this is how they do it out here.

Speaker 3:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. Well, you know, hey, may I make a suggestion? Or, like you know, and again, if I had not gone to Texas A&M, I would have probably jumped out of a fucking window. I'll be honest with you. Like, at least I was surrounded by the folks there that actually they know what the deal is. It's a senior military college. It's a good crew. I've definitely seen some of the counterparts across the force from some of the other programs and not so hot, not so much. I don't want to talk disparagingly about it, but I mean fuck it Like let's be honest, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

Like there there's a bell curve, exists for a fucking reason, right, and some people are on this end of it, some people are on that end of it, right, so, um, but yeah, it was, uh, you miss the guys. Uh, you definitely miss. I miss them a lot. I have, you know, the group chats set up. We talk shit on their. You know holiday season stuff like that, right, people ask me what's special about the regiment, right, what's special about the Ranger Regiment, and the answer is really nothing except the guys.

Speaker 1:

That's the most special thing about that place, like the, the quality of soldier, the quality of human being. For the most part, I mean when we, when we have fuck-ups, we have big fuck-ups, but like, when, when, but for the most part it's the, it's the best dudes you get, it's the, the best life insurance policy that you could invest in, you know, going to war, right, and um, the guys are fantastic, they're just incredible people. Um, and it's what the army should be, right, it's not if you think it's like you know the expendables, like all this, like crazy sexy shit all the time. Really, it's not like the regimen, the regiment, just, we get back to the basics constantly and, yeah, we, because it's the only special operations unit that has lower enlisted as privates, right? So it's the strength of the organization and the weakness. Ironically enough, it basically means that we will always go back to the basics. You're always going to re-blue that.

Speaker 3:

You're always going to have E1s, e2s, e3s in that organization.

Speaker 1:

There you go, educating them on your standards Exactly, and it drives a culture of accountability that is fucking relentless. But at the same time, there's always going to be a glass ceiling too, because of that turnover Right, and the regimen is a place that it's tough to get into. It is exponentially harder to stay Right. Um, like we, we will eat our own over there. So, um, and, and you gotta, you gotta, be a relentless competitor. You have to be incredibly disciplined. You have to be great at compartmentalizing things. You've got to stay on top of it. If you don't, you will pay for it. It's going to show up. You're not going to shoot as well as you could. That PT session is going to be harder than it should have been, those kinds of things. I'll admit, you know, there's definitely times where I was not the most disciplined guy. My buddies will tell you that. Um, no secrets here, right?

Speaker 1:

But uh, you know, may, found, found a way, made it, made it work for the amount of time that that I did and uh, you know, I know I'm proud of that. Your average career there is about four years or so. So you know, it's like I said, it's tough on the body, it's tough on the mind, but it's. It's a place that has to exist.

Speaker 2:

Yes, sir. So how did you get into the regiment? Did you like know going in that I want to be a ranger, or how did that kind of journey happen?

Speaker 1:

That I want to be a ranger, or how did that kind of journey happen? Yeah, that's a good question too, so I didn't know anything, you know obviously I love you, mom, I love you, I love you, but you didn't know anything either.

Speaker 1:

Like you know you help me out, get me in the army and stuff. But as far as, like, that whole pipeline goes, you kind of got to live it to figure it out, right? So army throws around this word ranger, you know a lot, right, and obviously, like I'd seen Blackhawk down, you know like everybody, oh cool, you know rangers and like saving Private Ryan rangers, you know it's r, you don't? You don't really totally know what that means, right? Um, so when I went in I had nothing to my name, right. So you know peak Obama administration enlistment, right.

Speaker 1:

Six years, $3,000, no airborne, no ranger, no bonus nada yeah not shit, right, fucking sign me up, right, all right, my mom's like get this motherfucker out of here no more spongebob at 2 pm in your underwear like go fucking.

Speaker 3:

You know, be a contributing adult, yeah right, so there's nothing wrong with SpongeBob, though Well, I mean at 20, it's not the sexiest thing, right?

Speaker 1:

You know cause I? I was going to play college ball, man, I was going to make it to the NFL. I was going to get mom a house you know you're reading plays in between SpongeBob.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, I plays in between sponge. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna do all that.

Speaker 1:

and then you know but then I had to go to class, yeah, and that kind of fucked everything up, yeah. So you know, oh, army it is, then let's go do this thing, you know. And um, so when I went, uh, when I went to basic at, uh, fort moore, um, you know, I went in with nothing, right, thank God that I did come from the background, that I did with my mom, who made me pass a PT test to the Army standard before I could even go to MAPS, right, so she's like you're at least going to do this. And I came from a sports background football, weightlifting, track and field, field, not so much track and your mom was in the guard, right, she still is. Oh, yeah, yeah, hey, ma, when are you gonna get out?

Speaker 3:

I'm just gonna ask you that question one of these days.

Speaker 1:

Right, um, she's, uh, she's going on like 40 years of, like, total service. I think she's about to hit 30 active here pretty soon. So, yeah, so shout out to mom Dukes like super, super, super proud of you, ma Where's she out of? Uh, so she is active guard in the state of Florida. Okay, right, and she is. I believe I hope I'm not telling lies here. She's the command sergeant major for recruiting and retention from the state of Florida, so of course she recruited me.

Speaker 3:

So you stand up for address when you talk to your mom, you know it's just trying to Mom. We'll talk about that after.

Speaker 1:

I definitely called her sergeant major mom before you know, and it's all fun and games. But no she. So when I went in, because I had come from that background, I just excelled. You know, kind of like, took to it like a fish to water. You go to basic, I'm sure, like you were in right, Nope, no, nope.

Speaker 4:

Just that guy, yeah, just him.

Speaker 1:

So you've been boot or basic. Where are you Army? Army? Yeah, okay, basic him. So you've been, yeah, boot or basic. Where's your army? Army? Yeah, okay, basically. So you've been a basic. So you get there, you know it's. It's a culture shock and and people getting screamed at and all this stuff. I'm like, well shit, my mom's screaming me like this, you know I've done oh I've just saying the first time I've seen a knife hand.

Speaker 1:

You know like this isn't the first time I've been up at the ass crack at dawn, for absolutely no reason. You know like I went through some of those things, yeah, and then, coming from the sports background football, you know like. You know, coaches on your ass, all sorts of stuff, like that right, you could tell that there were some people that had did not have that at all right. And so you get in there, drill sergeant starts screaming and they start, you know, with the whole shit and we're all running across the sand pit there at uh, uh, at uh, delta two, five, eight over on sand Hill and people are going down like they've been shot.

Speaker 1:

You know like, dropping their bags and stuff and I'm just like, okay, well, just get to the other end of the field, Right, and you know so, of course, the first night you hear people like fart, noises someone crying.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, of course, across the bay someone's like man shut the fuck up. I'm asleep, man.

Speaker 3:

A hundred percent, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So like you know all the all the normal basic training stuff, but you know all the all the normal basic training stuff but, um, you know, nothing was hard like for me, nothing was hard Like, it was all you know, whatever. So while I was there, luckily I had a drill sergeant that kind of noticed that I was the platoon guide from day one to day last.

Speaker 3:

I to get that guy.

Speaker 1:

I tried, I tried to get fired, um, but uh, he told he. He told me he. He said megan, come here, he goes. You know where you're the platoon guide. I was like negative drill sergeant and I wish I wasn't. He was like shut the fuck up, listen to me, he goes. When you got a barrel of monkeys, you put a gorilla in charge. I was like okay. He's like so good, do what you do, whatever you got to do. I'm like what do you mean by that? He's like well, you know, figure it out. People act up. Yeah, like I'll close the door.

Speaker 1:

I'm like oh my god, you know, it's a fucking so. Anyway, from day one to day last, I'm the guy, and about About a month before the end, we had a guy show up by the name of Doug Freeman. Doug, I don't know where you are, by the way, I haven't seen him since my wedding. So if anybody does know, doug Freeman spent some time in the one 73rd first Ranger battalion back in the day. Um, you know, try to hit him up. I would love to know how he's doing. But, uh, he's from Texas, by the way. Um, anyway, he shows up and I see this guy. He's got a one, seven, five scroll on Right and I'm like, okay, why are these guys here? There are a couple of them showed up. They all had prior service patches. I didn't realize there were.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's a prior service people that are coming back in. You know had done some time in the army. They come back in and they make them go to the last, like four weeks of basic just to re-blue them real quick, right. And uh, the drill sergeant, uh, drill sergeant Rice. He said uh, hey, there's an option 40 contract that has come available. It's from another kid that recycled basic training. So I don't think he's going to make it. Um, do you want it? I said I don't know. Uh, I don't know what an option 40 contract is. He was like it's a Ranger contract. If shit, do you want it or not? I said, yeah, I'll take it. That's how I got it.

Speaker 1:

And Doug Freeman, um, ended up kind of being like my mentor a little bit those last couple of you know, because it was picking his brain like okay, what's what's it like? What's battalion like? What's what's rip? Like, right, cause it was rip. Then it became rasp while I was in basic training, so went through one of the first rasp classes back in uh, 2010 or so. Um, so yeah, anyways, and and that's that's how that ended up coming, coming about. I didn't have anything. I was so ignorant to all of it. Um, talking with Doug, right, I was like, okay, cool, so as soon as I'm done with here, I go to ranger school, right. And he's like no, it's like what are you talking? No, dude, no, you got it. You got it. No, you're gonna go to airborne school.

Speaker 3:

Then you're gonna go to ranger assessment selection, you know, and then you're gonna go to battalion and then, if you don't totally suck and get fired there, then eventually you'll have your shot to go to ranger school yeah, because people don't realize, like just you could be at the regiment for a while before you're even a ranger, like you're with the guys and but it's all learning that whole time and then you go see if you can get your scroll oh yeah, that's a whole education yeah like I said, basic training wasn't hard.

Speaker 1:

Airborne school was old. Knees in the breeze wasn't hard at all. My first that hard day in the army was the day they picked us up for rasp. Um, this van comes screaming into the place, these dudes, the van's literally like fishtailing into the parking lot and the door opens and this guy walks out as it's like still kind of moving. I'm like holy shit and like what is going on yeah, I'm like what the hell is this right?

Speaker 1:

just got real and they're like why is this all fucked up? You got 10 seconds to get this place dress right, dress 10, 9, 8. And we're like shit, you know, like this guy's not playing red face again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah right and we're like this guy's not playing. You know, and it was very like clear right off the bat that this was not like a trade-off kind of thing. You know, it's like this guy's in shape, he looks pissed, he's got a bunch of hair uh, you know he gets out, so fucks us up a little bit, you know, getting us used to the new tempo at which things will be done. And, um, right there, before we even move, he's like who wants to quit right now, like a couple hands go up immediately.

Speaker 1:

Right, he's like get the fuck out of here. So the rest of you guys get your bags, get it on the back of the van, doors open, we're like, and the van starts driving. So we're just chasing it with our bags. You know, about a mile up to, oh shit, yeah, about a mile from airborne school up to uh where they were taking us in at rasp and just doing the bag run. You know, and this, uh, this particular nco, uh he's, he's running in like his duty uniform, just talking shit the entire time.

Speaker 1:

Right, he's just like you are fucking pathetic he's like hey, he's fucking soft body, this guy, you know, tiny heart, little heart, little bitch, like just right, you know, and just running back and forth just giving us the business the whole time. And I'm like jesus christ, so we get in through the gate, do some more stuff, do some bear crawl and do you know all sorts of fun stuff for about 20 minutes or so. And then he asked again all right, stop, who wants to quit? More hands go up. You know. And I had a buddy that, uh, I had been basic airborne, you know, whatever, all through he was right next to me and he was like boom, hand up. And I'm like what the fuck? Yeah, like for real, I'm like I thought we were gonna do this thing, you know.

Speaker 1:

And, um, I remember the, uh, the, the pre-rasp cadre, because it was intake. We weren't even in RASP yet. We were just like welcome, welcome, it was the welcoming party, that's what it was. He's like hey, you want to join them? Negative, sorry. He's like then don't look at him anymore, he doesn't exist anymore. I was like okay, that's how this is going to be. I got to do that fun shit for five weeks and then rasp picked up, which was eight weeks, whole nother level of you know like just wasn't easy. You know pretty difficult shit. We started with 126 or so. We graduated 21 with recycles. Damn think 18 originals, yeah, 18 ogs and like three recycles. So then I was like, oh cool man, I got my beret, I got my scroll. I'm the fucking man, you know, that was like the last hard thing I got to do and I got down to battalion, got a whole nother education. Like I didn't realize just how little they gave a shit about any of that.

Speaker 1:

And uh, and these guys were, you know, coming back. I mean, these were the guys that were coming back from multiple Iraq and Afghanistan rotations by that time and, like you know, you get to the company and who the fuck have you killed? Yeah, it's like the question, right, that's like that's the question out of the gate, you know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

No one.

Speaker 1:

Not a soul, you know, and, uh, and, and these were, these were the guys, right, they were fucking, they're hard, like intimidate, like guys that you like you better come correct around those places. That's all I can say about that. Like that, that company area, like these were guys that were fucking serious about what it is that they did, um, and and, like I said, you need organizations like that, um, borderline psychopaths, but you absolutely need those guys.

Speaker 1:

And they really are like, like I said before, greatest guys on the on on the planet. But they're going to. You got to pass the sniff test because, like, in a very short amount of time, it, but they're going to. You got to pass the sniff test because, like, in a very short amount of time, they're putting their life in your hands too. Like everybody has to play that position. You know, like everybody, you, you all, got to play your position. You got to know it inside and out, right, um, that's the other thing.

Speaker 1:

I would say that you know, when we talked about things that you miss from regiment, the guys, and you miss for me at least, and I I can't speak for other guys, but I would assume that this is probably true because I've had plenty of conversations with guys that have moved on from the regiment you miss being the very best at what you fucking do and having that down To a science.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean, like being in an organization where you know that you are in the percentile of a percentile of the deadliest fucking group. You know force on the planet. You know at that time, like a well-oiled, rate, seasoned Ranger platoon is is I'm, I'm telling you guys, in land warfare it is the deadliest fucking thing you've ever seen, like they just leave shit smoking. You know what I mean. There ain't, there ain't nothing left, right and um, I miss that. Yeah, I do miss that. You know, like there are days when I'm like sitting at the desk like hey, we've got, uh, you know, casual Friday coming up. I'm just like, and I'm sitting there kind of like fantasizing about other things and I'm like what Huh?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, sounds great, awesome, and what a great thing to bring to the, to the school though. Like that background and that standard, yes To A&M.

Speaker 1:

Like what Rudder's company we big on standards, yeah, rc we big on standards. Yeah, we're big on standards, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I mean that's, that's a huge, huge thing that like will help those I don't say kids, but dudes and ladies going into that to have a background like that to look up to and know what they're getting themselves into absolutely and, like I said there was, when I first got to the program there was already a great foundation, late, like you know.

Speaker 1:

Alex royston was there before now over at AMU like premier NCO, really taught me the ropes. We had Major Huebner, now up at Fort Cavazos, best officer NCO relationship, working relationship I've had, and that's saying something because you know Where'd he go. So he's up at the MC pod up at Fort Cavazos. What is?

Speaker 3:

Fort Cavazos, fort Hood, oh, okay, okay I haven't heard that one yet. Yeah, interesting, it's ford hood.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay they call it cavazos. Yeah, yeah, whatever cool I'm down with it.

Speaker 3:

If you would have said that I would never would have known that I'm like where's this the great?

Speaker 1:

place, you know, um, so uh, they kind of needed an imagery brand, I guess. But yeah, he's up there now and great relationship with him. And then the guys I work with there now you know, major Brightwell has been in the program a couple of years, great dude, and then was able to bring in another will be. He's left seat, right seating with me right now. He's my understudy but he will be taking over the program when I'm done.

Speaker 1:

There it's a staff Sergeant Henson from a two, seven, five, so he's from second range of battalion mortar guy, super knowledgeable, um, young but very, very experienced, um and uh, and and I know he's going to continue to take it to another level, like it'll continue to, it'll grow, you know, and that's that, that was the main thing. Right, that's that's what we wanted to do at that program, because it just it should be you know what I mean Like Texas A&M army, rotc, that organization it should be premier in cadet command, it just should. That's that's its position and um, and we want to try to keep that alive and well with the things that we're doing there and challenge the other programs to step it up. Come get it. You know what I mean. Like, come get it.

Speaker 1:

And then there's a. There's a lot of good programs out there. I'm not trying to shit on everybody, it's just I think I'm better and I think we're better, you know, and I should. I'm not going to apologize for that, so, um, but yeah Uh so on rudders.

Speaker 2:

How does that? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 1:

How's it different from from the ROTC? Is it a basically the honors program, if you will, for Army ROTC? Right, we do additional FTXs, we have additional ranges and I focus completely on tactics, marksmanship, soldiering skills, those kinds of things. They are still beholden to their Army ROTC curriculum with their other programs, their parent programs, if you will MS1, freshmen, ms2, sophomores, ms3s, juniors right, they still have to do that. But as far as their labs go in the afternoons, as far as the FTXs go, as far as the ranges go, all that stuff like that, they do that with me, which then decompresses some of the other programs to be able to run their training a little more effectively. Because if you were to take all those cadets and then dump them all back on to, you know, the rest of the programs there at A&M, like your span of responsibility and control, and it would get pretty crazy, pretty quick, you know, with all those additional bodies. So and um, and I'm glad that I'm able to do that job. Like I personally feel like I have the best job in all of army ROTC, like you're telling me that I get to teach tactics, marksmanship and soldiering skills and put it together and you know, as realistic training as I can try to provide. I don't have to go and teach about bugle calls or proper uniform, or, you know, I don't have to get into the softer side of Sears of stuff, you know. I don't have to talk about mill prop, I don't have to, you're telling me. I just get to literally prepare, you know, kids to be future war fighters, you know, potentially. Then I'm all, I'm all about it. Right, that's, that's, that's why I wanted to do it. And and um, blake Connors, right, um, you know, like, good on, like. I'm forever thankful for him, for having that inclination to bring me into it to do that job in particular. So super, super happy about that.

Speaker 1:

And then also the stuff that we do with Ranger Challenge as well. Right, so you know, nested within Rudder's company is Ranger Challenge. So our Ranger Challenge team, like what, if I? So you know, texas A&M is crazy about the pursuit of national titles, right, correct, Okay, well, they're sitting on a back-to-back national champion. It's their Ranger Challenge team. Hey, A&M, it's your Ranger Challenge team. Back-to-back ROTC national title winners, rotc Cup, number one of all 274 programs in the country. Damn, all right. And going again to pursue that for a third consecutive year? Right Got to take care of. What's in front of us is obviously the train up first for the brigade competition to even qualify, to go back and have a chance of doing that. You know we are oriented on that process. We're proud of the outcomes, but it's the process of getting there that we care about more than anything else.

Speaker 1:

Right, but I think they deserve a shout out because they're tremendous kids, they're incredible competitors and if you go in a day in a life of our Ranger Challenge competitor competitor like our ranger challenge kids, nothing else really seems hard because like they're up well before the sun even cracks, doing you know, some grueling pt sessions, um, as designed by the crew over there, and uh, and nate young and and the uh, the, the staff that we use for strength and conditioning over there with those guys. And then uh, studies all day long and then labs, and then, you know, when they're not doing those in official capacities, they're thinking about it, they're preparing for this next thing. No notice, training pops up, you know, uh, and they don't, they just they don't flinch, they really don't flinch.

Speaker 1:

I'm incredibly proud of those kids and uh, and I love coaching and teaching and training and, like coaching Ranger challenge is awesome, yeah, you know, like it's uh, it has a little bit of everything right, it has some aspects of, like the team sport, so you got fuck in, and they are focused on that one singular thing and they're in that flow of just kicking ass and you're just like man, this is fucking cool.

Speaker 1:

Like I, I love having that moment, yeah, with uh, with those guys, because it's like, um, yeah, I just like I, I absolutely love getting the most out of people and trying to get them to that spot, and the most out of myself too. But, like you know, if I can guide and train and mentor somebody to do or a team to do, you know, along with everybody not just me, like this is not just a me thing, as far from a me thing at all Um, but us together right To be able to get to that level. It's special shit that people don't often accomplish or even have the inclination to try Right. So that's that's what I love about it the most.

Speaker 2:

So on Ranger challenge, what kind of equipment do they use? Is it just like all rack rate M4s or like do you get what's like the? I guess what's the competition look like.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so. So yes to your question about the M4s. It's just your standard military issue irons backup iron sights M4A1. Military issue irons backup iron sites M4A1.

Speaker 1:

The competition itself, right, is really interesting because you can format it kind of any way you want to, but kind of classically it's a station sort of event, right? So you'll have multiple stations that'll be distances apart, you know, usually about a mile, mile and a half or so. You start at one station. Let's say that the skill that they're trying to get at is, uh, grenades, like grenade throwing to hit a target, right, so they'll have the grenade popper, right, um and uh, what they'll do is, instead of just throwing the grenade, there's, of course, some physical thing that has to happen in order to do that Right. So, whether that's individual movement techniques, whether that's dragging a sled, whatever that might look like, you know before you do that.

Speaker 1:

So everything is under duress, like everything right, and everything is time-based, right. So you hit your, you have your points, you know you do well at the skill, but then it all kind of comes back to time and how quickly you move to the next and then you have a timed movement. Oh, wow, yeah, right To the next station. If you get there first, you have a time reduction, if you get there last, they're adding time, right, um? So everything is driving that competition the entire time. And then you know it might be T, triple C is the next thing. And there's something, there's a physical component to it, shooting. There's a physical component to it rifle and pistol. Um, zodiac, right, zodiac boat, small boat, that whole thing is physical. So it's just like you know, take the fucking boat go to the other side of the pond get this shit and come back.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Um so, but watching just it all come together, right, um, all the hours, all the reps, all the sets, all the time you spend obsessing over things from a player perspective, from a coach perspective, from a cadre perspective and seeing it all kind of come together, and you know, being on that shitty ass early morning flight back from wherever.

Speaker 3:

but you know we got the hardware like yeah, can't hurt me at that point in time feeling good, you know, and uh, and that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

so I really do enjoy that nice, where's it held every year, or does it move around?

Speaker 1:

so the brigade competition right, which is again our singular focus. We have to get that one right. Yeah, right, ranger challenge is an all or nothing kind of game, right. So like it's not like baseball or football, where you've got multiple attempts you can have two losses, three laws, whatever. No, like you got one fucking shot. If you don't qualify, you don't move on. Right, so that one is held at Fort Knox because of first brigade and then, if you qualify, out of that one for the Sandhurst international military skills competition, which is a mouthful that's held up at West point. Right, so that competition is like, like it says in the name, and international competition, which means that obviously there's teams from Sweden, denmark, canada, mexico, japan, fricking other places there's. I can't, I can't think of them all, but like there's a lot there's there's usually about a dozen international teams.

Speaker 1:

Then you've got west point competition teams black and gold, all right, and these two teams are teams that are specifically designated to compete at this every single year. So it is hand-picked from the west point population, which means they can requisition their division one athletes if they feel like doing that Right, which they do.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'd be, and then they have, in addition to that, if that wasn't enough, they'll flood the field with usually about eight to 10 outfit teams. So you'll have about eight to 10 other West Point teams which are still fucking very competitive teams. I mean, they're like West Point cadets, right? Yeah, so in total, west Point usually takes up about 10 slots. Then you have the other service, academies, right. So Navy will send a school, air Force will send a school. Air Force is really fucking good. They train at altitude, so they're like a bunch of horses.

Speaker 3:

What are they doing in the back of the C-130?

Speaker 1:

at 20,000 feet Getting ready for the Ranger Challenge. They're in the hyperbolic time chamber and then ROTC will send I want to make sure I get this right 16 representatives, because it's eight brigades, two teams from each, your top two teams from each brigade and first brigade, the one a and M's in, along with the Citadel, vmi, norwich university, north Georgia and Virginia tech are the six senior military colleges. There's four junior military colleges. Let's see if I can get them all. Oh, I'm playing a dangerous game New.

Speaker 1:

Mexico Military Institute, valley Forge, francis Marion and Georgia Military College.

Speaker 4:

I got them all. Hey y'all. Round of applause. Round of applause. I see you. I see you.

Speaker 1:

Anyways. So those 10 schools will compete. The junior military colleges are there for the experience. They can't I don't believe they can qualify actually for the event. So it really comes down to those six. But that big names, yeah. Well, I was going to say that brigade, right is like, is like sec football, yeah, you know what I mean. Like it's like okay, we only got 10 schools, but these are killers in here, right, and then you have the other brigades which can have a ton of schools, right, but a lot of them are honestly just happy to be there, right, they're not like actually hey, we're gonna win this year, yeah yeah, this is typically how it goes.

Speaker 1:

There's usually one killer in each brigade. That's pretty damn good. There'll be a rotational one that'll show up every once in a while, but the first brigade schools are consistent killers.

Speaker 3:

Who are you got like? So a and I'm spending going the last couple years. Who's been the number two out of out of um?

Speaker 1:

your division us, oh, okay, yeah, nice, yeah we, we haven't uh the brigade one in a few years.

Speaker 3:

We, we, uh, we're a second half team.

Speaker 1:

Let's put it that way we like to show up at Sandhurst um. Vmi Virginia, virginia military institute for the last two years has one Spartan ranger challenge uh, for the brigade, and gone up to Sandhurst ranger challenge uh, for the brigade and gone up to sandhurst, uh where, uh, we have edged them out, uh for the win nice, um, don't mean to rub it in.

Speaker 1:

But um, and then uh, but they're, they're a very good program. And uh, and then what's it gonna say? University of north georgia won it four years in a row. Yeah, before that they won not only, uh, spartan ranger challenge, but they also won sandhurst rotc division. Now, when I say winning sandhurst, I don't mean winning the whole thing, I mean out of the ROTC division. Right, that's why they have an ROTC cup. No ROTC program has ever won the competition overall. Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:

Because that's the international, you got international teams. West Point usually wins it.

Speaker 3:

Except for.

Speaker 1:

Army-Navy game. Yeah well, that's a whole nother thing Good God Jesus Talk about. I invited people over for that shit you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

It's like you invited people over to watch that execution. You're just like oh my lord, you know I was sitting back. I was like, you know, I fell asleep on the couch. I was like I'm gonna play in a dangerous game. I'm about to go down a college football hole. But I'm wondering if army, for the first time ever being a division or a conference champion, because they moved to the american, they played the the week before against tulane. I wonder if that cost them, because like, could have been. You know, because they're like oh, we feel good about ourselves, we're a conference champion and meanwhile navy's like you're gonna fucking have it.

Speaker 1:

I'm so tired of it, I'm gonna eat these guys alive you know, should have bet on Navy, like those seniors had never beat Army.

Speaker 3:

Yeah that was huge. It was a huge upset, yeah they wanted it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, you know the. The funny thing is too like with I absolutely love football and I know a lot of like the tactical community doesn't right, they're not like big on it, they're not big on football, but they're like big on like tactics. And like shooting. And look closer, grasshopper, right, when you watch a football game. It is tactics, all tactics. It's tactics, right. Like you have lines of scrimmage, there's your base of fire Trying to maneuver, get outside. You got a pre-snap. Look Scouting, right, you got the jock. They're upstairs seeing shit calling it down to you. It is all tactics. You are trying to out-leverage somebody. You're trying to maneuver on them. You're trying to create angles. That's also why I love combat sports. You take a look at combat sports. What are you trying to do? You're trying to create angles. You're trying to out leverage somebody. You're using your jab. There's your base of fire, here's your maneuver piece.

Speaker 3:

Actually explain it to the cadets like that. I'd break it down to the way to look at it, though like I I'm a bills fan and and like, shut up looking at it like I've never looked at that, like at it that way before.

Speaker 1:

You're like oh yeah, like that's I'll make a, I'll make, I'll make a football fan out of the tactics guy where you just kind of sit there and you go, hey, look at this, there's patterns to this thing. I'm a big pattern guy, right, I like to try to meet people where they are when I explain it to them. So when I talk about, you know, clearing through an objective and staying in your lane, I literally use the term like gap sound, like gap assignment, right, like I'm not getting fixated on this target because it's the known, likely and suspected what's out there. Right, I'm not going to get fixated on this thing, I'm staying in my lane, kind of like kickoff, like a kickoff team. Everybody goes in here, they get outside, right, now, we got issues right.

Speaker 1:

And then, with combat sports, when I explain set piece and moving piece, I ask them I say, hey, what happens if we have no moving piece and it's all set piece, right? Well, you're going to take a beating, right? Kind of like a boxer standing here like this, we're not throwing anything, right. And then, if you have all moving piece, right, you got nothing to cover up with, right?

Speaker 3:

So I ask him, have you ever seen somebody win a fight by throwing a punch like this, cause I never have Ian, let me punch you like that Mike to come through the door punch me in the head because I said his name but you got that set piece and you got the moving piece right.

Speaker 1:

And it's again so, like when we teach these things like bounding, and you're breaking down the fundamentals of fighting. You, you have your security, you have your maneuver, you're trying to create angles, you're trying to limit your opponent's options while creating more options for yourself.

Speaker 4:

And that's true in sports, that's true in fighting, that's true in fucking combat yeah, I did a a lot of um muay thai and mmaiu-Jitsu back in Pennsylvania. It was always a lot of super calm combat vet dudes but they were always looking at it in that perspective of a tactics, tactical maneuver kind of thing. When you are already in that tactical mindset, it's hard to not get obsessed with things like combat sports, football, when you look at them through that aspect. It's really funny that you brought that up because one of my mentors at my old MMA gym was very much like that, in more of a jiu-jitsu sense. But he was very much like that and it helps open your mind to doing moves and finishes and stuff like that. It becomes very, very obsessive when you look at it that way.

Speaker 4:

Because it's the pattern.

Speaker 1:

It's true across, yeah, and it works, things right works, and that's why my slow, that's why, for ranger, you, my slogan is prepare for war right like it is, war like life you know what I mean like it is, like it is like the same, the same basic principles and fundamentals that you would employ in honest to God combat in war you're going to have in life, right, like every single day, like every. Just look for it, look for that pattern. It's there, right, because, like this whole thing is a war, just to stay alive, like everything's competition, like uh, was it, uh, was it was. It was joe rogan, it was joe rogan. I'm gonna do the classic thing it was joe rogan.

Speaker 1:

What did he say? We're a bunch of monkeys on a floating space rock. That's like as savage as it can get. So how is it not war like every day, you know?

Speaker 2:

you look for that pattern right so your podcast ranger you um where, where are you out there? Or like, where can people find that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, uh, that's uh. It's available on. I like to use this. It's available on all major patent podcast platforms where podcasts are sold.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so uh.

Speaker 1:

Apple, pods, Spotify, uh, probably just Google. I've, I've found. I just Google I found it on other things too, like oh shit, I didn't realize these people have it as well. But yes, it's available on all that. And then, like I said, we have Instagram as well. What's?

Speaker 2:

the Instagram handle.

Speaker 1:

It's rangeru, Because I had to put a bunch of dots in there. I wanted to just put RangerU just to make it easy. There's some guy named RangerU that has like three followers and no posts. I'm like what the fuck is this? What an asshole. Oh man, that sucks. Yeah, it was like damn he bought that domain already.

Speaker 1:

Man, god dang, I got screwed. Puff it up, yeah, the um, but yes, that's, that's where they can find it. And uh, like I said, I think right now we're sitting at like 23 episodes. Oh, I got to put out more. Yeah, uh, I, I got to.

Speaker 2:

I got to get those numbers up, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh, hell, yes, but yeah, because, as you know, you only have so many marbles right the time I'm done with the A&M guys and gals and the honey do list. And did I eat today? Yeah, shit, jim. And then you know, I occasionally do like to lay next to my wife every once in a while. You know I don't want to be like, hey, honey, I'm going to go podcast for the third night in a row.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Again, even though she's got this obsession with reading these crazy magic dragon books these days Wait are you married to my wife?

Speaker 2:

They're all the same aren't they?

Speaker 3:

They're all the same Dude 100%.

Speaker 1:

It's always named some weird shit like a throne of glass and thorns or some shit. I don't know who would want to sit on that.

Speaker 4:

I got lucky. My girlfriend doesn't like books.

Speaker 2:

That's good.

Speaker 1:

That's good. No, yeah, I was talking with somebody else the other day. That's literally what my wife reads all the time. I know, dude, and it's like, first off, this is smut, but secondly, it's a fact. It's a fact.

Speaker 2:

I found that out, I was like what are you reading? I was like that's poor, Like what are you reading?

Speaker 3:

No, Okay, I thought it was about dragons. Yeah, it is about dragons.

Speaker 4:

You just keep those Barnes and Noble gift cards.

Speaker 3:

What are we reading? This is not the dragons.

Speaker 1:

I thought, oh my God, it's like some guy named Zayden, you know, like fucking banging all the chicks at the wizard school or whatever.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's 100%.

Speaker 1:

Whatever?

Speaker 3:

dude, dude. Your girls make it on it that actually sounds kind of sick. You better look out. You're going to come home and she's going to be reading one of those one day.

Speaker 4:

I know she's going to see this and be like. Actually I do like books.

Speaker 1:

A matter of fact, here's a bag full yeah, yeah, and it's like like he was saying, it's like it's like all of them right yeah, yes yeah, yeah yeah, damn, I can't read, so that's good bingo easy easy when I listen to my books.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, back to the audio books yeah, yeah, um, it was like a quintessential thing happened. It was so funny in the moment I kind of realized that she's deep in some chapter, about somebody being deep in some chapter, and uh, and I was, I was, I was sitting there next to her, I was sitting there next to her and I had the ranger handbook there you go, I was like checking on shit.

Speaker 3:

I was like did I get that right?

Speaker 1:

and like how do I explain that better? And and then, like I kind of came out of it for a minute and I'm like honey, how do you think I should? Explain.

Speaker 3:

L-shaped ambush to the kids.

Speaker 4:

Exactly, babe. How about LDAs, l-shaped ambush?

Speaker 1:

is in gauge eight on Matt. You absolutely need to stop when you absolutely need to stop.

Speaker 2:

That's your lc. Oh shit man. Yeah, damn nice.

Speaker 1:

Well, dude thanks thanks for coming on coming down chatting with us. Absolutely, I had a great time, man, I appreciate you guys uh inviting me down. I'm glad we can awesome get on here and tell some truths. Yeah, hell, yeah, so so, ranger you podcast?

Speaker 2:

check them out wherever podcasts are sold. Uh, use the Google, look them up. Look them up on Instagram Type in all the periods, not the other guy that has three followers and no posts.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, don't pay attention to that guy, not that guy. Don't report him. Fuck that guy. Dude sucks.

Speaker 4:

We're going to frame that domain for you the handle.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just abuse that guy Gotta get on it, gotta get on it.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, anyways, like comment, subscribe. Share this all that good stuff. Check out our buddy Mike here. I'm horrible at sign-offs. Luckily we have Ian here, so I'm going to let him handle that, change your socks, drink water and Beto what do you got? Oh, Uno reverse card here. Uno reverse card or skip, I guess.

Speaker 4:

Don't get caught in a linear danger area. I don't know that's a good one, that's a good one.

Speaker 1:

That's a good one, that's a good one.

Speaker 3:

That's absolutely a good one. Thanks, guys.