Security Halt!
The only Mental Health podcast that shares honest and authentic accounts of living with mental health issues, that's also hosted by individuals fighting the same fight you are!Providing information and resources for help with a heavy dose of humor and entertainment. Helping you find hope and the strength to fight on.
Security Halt!
#208 Earl Plumlee : Green Beret and Medal of Honor recipient
Ever wondered what it takes to earn the Medal of Honor and navigate the complex world of Special Forces? This episode features an exclusive conversation with Earl Plumlee, a Green Beret whose journey from the National Guard to the Special Forces is nothing short of inspiring. Discover the profound impact of his military career, the trials and triumphs that shaped him, and the honor and weight of receiving one of the highest military accolades. Earl opens up about the challenges of transitioning between different military branches and the ongoing mission to adapt and overcome in the most demanding circumstances.
Family plays a crucial role in the life of a Special Forces operator, a theme we explore deeply in this episode. Earl shares personal anecdotes underscoring the importance of involving spouses in career decisions to maintain strong family bonds. We also tackle the inherent difficulties of explaining the rewarding yet demanding military lifestyle to those outside the "warrior culture." Communication and mutual understanding emerge as key elements in sustaining familial support and happiness amid the rigorous demands of service.
The episode takes a serious turn as we discuss the mental health impact of preventable battlefield deaths, particularly focusing on PTSD among soldiers and the heavy responsibilities shouldered by military leaders. From the mentorship of young non-commissioned officers to the unique patriotism of Green Berets, Earl reflects on the deep connections forged through service.
Your support means the world to us, so please remember to LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE to stay updated with our latest episodes and join our growing community!
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Support the Krulak Classic Charity Golf Tournament by clicking the link below
DONATE TODAY
Krulak Classic on IG: krulakclassiccharitygolf
Krulak Classic on FB: Krulak Classic Charity Golf Tournament
Krulak Classic on LinkedIn: Krulak Classic Charity Golf Tournament
Connect with Earl!
Instagram: earl_plumlee_official
Facebook: Earl Plumlee Fan
Website: earlplumlee.com
Produced by Security Halt Media
security hot podcast. Let's go. You're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best with guns, with knives, with his bare hands, a man who's been trained to ignore, ignore weather to live off. The land job was disposed of enemy personnel to kill period win by attrition. Oh, plumley welcome man. Uh, thank you for being here today, dude. No pleasure man. It's uh, it's awesome to have not not only another green beret but, uh, a former weapons sergeant, the the most stepped on mos and special operations.
Speaker 2:I'm not a former weapon, so You're always a weapon sergeant.
Speaker 1:Right next to him. You can't see it on screen, but there's a weapons toolkit and a hammer ready to go Always.
Speaker 2:This thing's not quite working right, but I'm hoping to get it going.
Speaker 1:I think it's the greatest MOS. I'm a proud 18 Bravo turned warrant officer and I thank God every day that I didn't get shuffled over to the 18 Echo pile.
Speaker 2:I came in and was for sure. I wanted to be a Delta.
Speaker 1:Dude, same here yeah.
Speaker 2:I think, a lot of Bravos. I talked about half Like yeah, I wanted to be a Delta, and then I found out it was an extra year. And a lot of Bravos. I talked about half like yeah, I was going to, I wanted to be a Delta, and then I found out it was an extra year and a half of school and I just wanted to get the course over with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, for me it was my math. It was the greatest moment in selection. I remember vividly that you make it in the entire time You're always telling yourself I'm not going to make it, I'm not'm not gonna make it. Then you fucking make it and you get brought in and, uh, they're showing you all the things you did great at. And I just remember the guy looking at me. He's like what, what mos do you want to do? I was like 18, delta. He's like you see that spot right there? That's your fucking math. You're an 18, bravo. I was like I will be an 18, bravo. Let me do you a favor, son. You don't have what it takes in the math category, but I'm glad I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:You can't. I'm just saying it's already really hard. Do you want to make it really?
Speaker 1:really hard, those bastards. Oh, man, earl, welcome to Security Hall, man, dude, you are I mean, you are an icon. Now you are the recipient of the Medal of Honor and now you're part of our not only American history, our soft legacy, and I wanted to sit down with you and kind of dive into that, because we hear about the battle, we hear about the awards, but we don't talk about the transition, we don't talk about the aftermath and everything that goes with having what, arguably, could be one of the most raw and intimate, painful moments of your life highlighted every single day when you're in the media blitz and what happens on the backside of that. So I want to dive into your journey, man, but I want to start into your journey, man. But I want to start off with dude. You started out in the national guard and then the marine corps well what?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's, it's the same, you know track. One of the reasons that I probably would not have made a good uh delta is, uh, I got a little bit of the the adhd man, so I was uh, I'm not afraid to make bold course corrections to pay on how I'm feeling uh, oh man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can only imagine you were at your, your team sergeant's, a special, special, a team bravo but, yeah, I had a lot of fun everywhere I was at uh and uh, you know, people always ask me do you wish you'd come to sf uh sooner? And you know, while that was the the highlight of my career, um, there, you know, there's no doubt the journey I took made me um something that the regiment was interested in because, uh, you know, you know, you know, private Plumlee and the army national guard was not, uh, anything that the SF regiment needed or wanted.
Speaker 1:What'd you think? You went to the national guard first, cause I think that's a. You know, I'm a product of the guard first as well, and I was college for me.
Speaker 2:I was the uh. They were the only people that would take me uh while I was still in high school. So I, I, always I was. You know, that was going to be my path. I was going to join the military, uh, and do something you know um, I had, uh, had big designs on what I was still in high school were the National Guard.
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah, that's the easiest path in.
Speaker 2:And then after that, you decided to go Marine Corps, yeah, well, so the National Guard was neat, but I was looking for, you know, I wanted to be tested. I wanted to. You know, I wanted to be, you know, as a, as a 19 year old kid, you know, I wanted to walk into a room and people like, what do you do? And I was like I want to be, like I'm a, you know, fill in the blank, but I wanted that prestige and I wanted that respect of like I have kind of harder that's that comes with a little bit of uh, you know, just respect from the average guy walking around because they, they wouldn't normally have chosen that path. So and it's also the marine corps is is uh, it's a, a curse on your family.
Speaker 1:so my dad was green and uh, that's, and I I still.
Speaker 2:I have friends that I serve with their kids, call me. All the are there, they call me and like, hey, talk to my kid. And there's, uh, if you were a Marine and you tell your child, hey, you should join the Marine Corps, they'll listen to you and they'll join the Marine Corps. And then if you tell them don't join the Marine Corps, they take it as a slight insult, like, well, the old man doesn't think I'm tough enough to be a Marine, I'll show him and I'm no different.
Speaker 2:My dad was like, hey, don't join the Marine Corps, what you want to do is the Air Force or the Army. Pick what you want to do and then get after it there. And he doesn't think I can cut it.
Speaker 1:I'll show you, show you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you didn't just choose to go to the marine corps you chose to find like a very difficult path within the marine corps. Um, yeah, I remember um being extremely regretful about four years. Uh, every four years, my entire career. Um, very specific, yeah, every four years I did something career um very specific.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every four years I did something, just, uh, that really made my life uh, much more difficult. So, you know, I'm in the national guard and I go to the Marine Corps, um, and and start over effectively, and I, I don't keep, I don't stay in the field artillery, I go to the infantry. And you know so I'm out there, uh, being wet, for literally weeks on end, um, smelling like a cattle truck. When I come back from the field and I remember, like man, did I make the right choice? Is this, this is I was? I know, I wanted, I wanted to be able to tell people, you know, I have, look at my little feather in my hat, but I'm really earning something out here.
Speaker 2:And then, as soon as I kind of got accustomed to being in the infantry, I was like, well, this is, you know, this is too easy. And so I, uh, you know, I became a force reconnaissance Marine and then, you know, doing the same type of work, except for, you know, swimming instead of riding in a Humvee to get to get to the training area and, uh, you know, being covered in sores and having sand in every crack and crevice. Um, I'm like, hmm, I'm not making any more money, and the only people that think I'm cool are the people, uh, that are already. I'm serving with Cause. Nobody, you know, nobody knew what a force reconnaissance Marine was, and and you know, I got my little gold bubble and gold wings, but nobody knows what that means, except for other Marines. So it's like, is this truly what I'm supposed to be doing?
Speaker 1:Nobody knows how great I am. Yeah, we need more movies. I mean that is, and it's arguably one of the hardest things you could do being a 4th Street Com Marine, but you guys make the best frigging teammates when you transfer over and become a Green Beret.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's what I always tell guys. When Marines like the thing about coming over, I was like I don't know if you're a very good Marine, but you are going to be a phenomenal Green Beret, I promise.
Speaker 2:It's true, because it's easier to get a guy to loosen up than to tighten up, and so your average marine just comes uh with with, you know, such a rigid personal discipline that getting him to you know, I know, I know you want to shave this morning, but don't, uh, it's, you know, it's one of those. It's easier to slow somebody down and speed them up dude, so fucking true it's not required that you shine both sides of your boot. Just be on time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had a former Marine Recon teammate and I had to constantly tell him on deployment stop shaving, Grow out your beard.
Speaker 2:I remember my first day in 4th Battalion. That's my first unit. I've been processed and now it's the real. Real and I show up and I get a haircut. Because as a Marine sometimes you got two haircuts a week, depending on what was going on, and you definitely got one Sunday night. You didn't get a haircut on Friday and come to work on Monday. That's unheard of. I got a haircut on a Wednesday night to meet my sergeant major and I instantly get my ass chewed. It was sergeant major Tony Bell. He's like did you like being a Marine? I'm like, yeah. He's like well, if you love it so much, I'll send you back. I have that power. I can make you a Marine again, or you can stop with the ridiculous haircuts. And you know and to me that was culture shock because I got a, you know, a medium reg or a low reg, you know like the.
Speaker 2:Baird-Renown haircut in the Marine Corps and he just hated it.
Speaker 1:Get out of here with your standards, yeah.
Speaker 2:He's like you're utterly useless to me and I was like I'm useless.
Speaker 1:He's like Are you in parade, rest right now? Yeah, why are your hands?
Speaker 2:in your pocket. If you got a mission today and I had to send you somewhere, everybody's going to look at that haircut and think that you're in the military. He's like You're going to stick out everywhere for like a month. Okay, it's like from now on, you should be no more than one week away from having a bad haircut. By bad haircut I mean a good haircut. I was like yeah, so you know, I quit getting haircuts all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that is yeah that. Oh my god, that is yeah that. That is a different type of ass chewing yeah, that's you know.
Speaker 2:I remember calling how you know I call my buddies in the marine corps. I was like you'll never believe what just happened to me, what I just got locked on for getting too many haircuts. They want me to stop, stop with the haircuts. So, yeah, I went from getting, you know, at least one haircut sometimes two, depending on what's going on to, uh, you know, getting like one haircut, uh, a quarter or so. Yeah, that is huge change.
Speaker 1:What drew you to go to first?
Speaker 2:group. Uh, so I, you know it's funny, I was, I was just out at 10th group telling that story. So, um, you know, I had my, my, um green berets, who I knew, uh, that I that I talked to they were, they ran training for us and uh, I remember asking him, cause I was kind of kind of thinking group, he's like, well, I mean it's a flawed question, because whatever group you're in, if you don't think it's the best, um, because you're in it and you're probably not who we're looking for, no, like, oh, okay, like. But here's the thing if you truly want to be happy in the regiment, let your wife pick the group you go to. He's like, because she's the one that's going to have to live there and you're going to be gone all the time and that was the best advice.
Speaker 2:So my wife, she, she kind of settled on 10th group or first group is where she would like to live. And then, after selection, uh, they had a little, every group had a pump up video to kind of lure you in. And 10th groups, you know, they were snowshoeing with rocks, obviously on some kind of forced march, and I was like, and then they're, you know, cross-country skiing with rucks and uh and uh, they had a 50 cal like on a, on a sled with a you know a bunch of ammo cans and I was like and then set up a sniper hide site in a big snow cave and uh, I was like this is not really working for me, you know.
Speaker 2:I remember the last thing the crescendo, the music is going and it's a bottom up view of a combat diver coming up to an ice sheet and he's cutting a hole in the ice and he's popping out of this little hole and I was like 10th group is man like I? So I wrote down first group three times on my little dream list and I went all or nothing on first group because I was not interested in anything that 10th group had on display.
Speaker 1:Just went too heavy with the cold stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the whole video was just them sucking in the cold, so it was fine. I mean they they got their right guys, because there's, there were dudes that were pumped and were like wrote down 10th group 10 times.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's a strange fucking group, same with third group, but you can't.
Speaker 2:You couldn't pay me enough to stay in fayetteville and in north carolina my original plan was, um, being a green brain was my safety school and, uh, I had aspirations of going to a tier one unit. Yeah, my wife was like, how important is that it to you? Because, honestly, I don't know if I can live here we could move the southern pines.
Speaker 2:I was like you know I was like put a pin in that we'll. We'll cross that bridge if we have to. But that was. I was like, uh, now I have to. I have to pass another selection and I got to figure out how to trick my wife into coming back to fort bragg yeah, did, you nailed it, man.
Speaker 1:Like being able to give your wife, uh, a big say in that whole process is huge.
Speaker 2:No, that's uh that's something I um that's. You know, that's something I um I got wrong. Oh, you know, uh, I got, I got married and divorced in the Marine Corps and uh, you know, one of the big hurdles we had in our marriage was that she had a terrible perception of the of the Marine Corps and I realized it's I didn't involve her in my career. Really, yeah, it was always. And then also, you know, I came home pissed off about stuff and I just would let her have that.
Speaker 2:So, for her everything. She didn't know what was going on and everything sucked, because that's the, that's what I was kind of telling her. And so when we you know, when we came into the army, my wife and I I made a huge culture shift in our household that every time I had to be out of the house I would explain to her why it was important that I'd be doing it. And, uh, maybe she didn't agree that it was important, but at least she understood that it was important to somebody and it was, uh, my time was a value, yeah, and I, I will it. It seemed valuable on its face, so my wife understood that, um, the, the, the, there was a challenging mission somewhere and then I was the guy that was going to have to do it. And, uh, and that helped, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where do you think that came from? Cause that's something that not a lot of us ever tap into.
Speaker 2:Um well, I just remember I and my first wife and I arguing cause I love being a force of conscience, marine, and then she was like trying to get me to get out and she was trying to convince me that I hated it. And I was like I hate, I love this, and it's like you don't hate it. And she had like a little diary this is, this is everything you said for the past month and it was like, oh well, I mean, I can see how you would think I hate this job if you just had to go off of what I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:I fucking hate it here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you bitch about it constantly. How could you possibly love it?
Speaker 1:That's something that we all do, though. They never hear the actual truth of the good things because you never talk about the good things, the actual truth of like the good things, because you never talk about the good things.
Speaker 2:Also a lot of the good things. It's so hard to define. It's that leap from being a normal citizen to kind of joining the warrior culture. It's hard to explain the things that you're valuing in your service to somebody that's just not a part of it and honestly, you know just not going to get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's absolutely like solid truth right there. It's so hard to explain that team room environment to somebody that's never seen or been in it.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the uh, you know she didn't get the guilt either. Ooh, yeah, leave because uh, um, and then the uh, you know she didn't get the guilt either. Oh, yeah, leave because, uh, you know, not the organization.
Speaker 2:I was very pragmatic with my understanding that, like, if I, if I step on any tank, mine and disappear into a funny smell, like the marine quarter is still going to be successful, you know. But, uh, the small difference is, like, you know, I can, I can be there and go first so that a younger guy, who's who's not maybe pumped about being the one man, can be the foreman until he gets his wheels under him and, uh, and being that guy, that's like I've seen this before. Uh, we're not going through that window. Come, you know, come back and, and you know, not just being successful in the battlefield, but you know, you know, saving a guy's life and at least giving him the tools to survive without you. So I always had that guilt where, uh, you know, I got one more, I got one more mission to to get the, get the guys how they need to be.
Speaker 1:I got one more trip in me. I can do one more.
Speaker 2:And, honestly, you know my um, having just just left, having just left, if the war hadn't ended, if Afghanistan hadn't folded, I don't really know how I would have exited the military, because it still would have been a huge hurdle, yeah, and even with all this.
Speaker 1:You know this talk of China and Iran. I'm like, oh, maybe I did.
Speaker 2:I make the right choice.
Speaker 2:Maybe I got one more in me, me, it's worse than lethal weapon. I hit the secretary of the army up. I'm like, ma'am, okay, let's just say this goes down, what are my options? And she's like well, earl you, it's like you didn't retire, you were medically separated. Uh, so, like your options. There's going to be things for you to do for the uh country, but wearing a uniform, and you know, walk and point those, like, unless you're patrolling in detroit, because that's how much of the country the chinese have, but it's not really likely that you're going to get to serve so you're saying there's a chance, dude, that's um, you just brought up something that so many of our soft professionals are dealing with right now.
Speaker 1:Uh, we, we are experiencing a, a huge exodus because afghanistan is over and I even saw it in the team room before I left um, the young guys coming in were completely devastated that a war was over yeah, that's a.
Speaker 2:That's one of those, those unique things you know that I tried to explain. They're like you actually want to go to war and for one you can argue that it is or it is not. But in the, in the military culture, going to war is a rite of passage. Yes, and there are harder things to do to then go to combat. You know ranger school, all those these schools that are develop. You are incredibly difficult and and most elite training that I attended was harder than war. But if you're walking around with your combat action ribbon in the Marine Corps or you got your combat deployment patch for the Army, there's some prestige with that and guys seek it and want it and you can't explain that to anybody and the closest thing I tell them is nobody wants to be a firefighter in a town that doesn't have fires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nobody wants to be a firefighter in a town that doesn't have fires. Yeah, nobody wants to play thursday night football. Everybody wants to be on varsity right and it was.
Speaker 2:It was hard to speak to young men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that joined in year old men yeah, that went through all of this fucking journey to become a green beret, to show up to that team room and it's like, hey, you got to get excited for j sets, you got to get excited for fids, like your war could be coming. Yeah, your core, your war is still, you know, and developing stages. Don't get excited, don't don't get you know down hard and beat down because afghanistan is over. Be excited about mastering your skill sets, be excited about being a master of your domain and if war comes down to it, you're gonna be ready for it.
Speaker 2:You're right, and that's the um that's the last thing you want to do is to be all mopey about yep and then not, you know, not giving your, your all the training, because you can't feel that way and take training seriously, cause if you're, you're sold on the fact that, like, oh, I missed everything you know and you get your EOR table.
Speaker 2:Um at some point in time, the peacetime training that you do will be the last train you do before you're on the battlefield. Yep, and and most of the the PTSD and and most of the the PTSD that I I've really seen in my peers is is guys that had preventable deaths on the battlefield. If it's, if it's just, uh, if it's just one of those things where we're in the fight and somebody has to die, you can kind of understand that. You know the enemy gets a vote. But if it's something that was preventable, um, and god help you. If it's, if it's your negligence or malaise that gets a guy killed, uh, that's just absolutely crippling um and that's.
Speaker 2:You know I, often I warn those, um, those young ncos out there now, you know, carrying that banner is, you know, sooner or later, the last thing you're going to do before you're on the battlefield is that you know, paying the ass. Jrtc or ntc rotation, yeah, wow. And if you're out there eating sunflower seeds, calling up fake pause reps, um, because the training's lame, you know, in 60 days you could literally be in the fight of your life. So, like, how do you want to invest that time? Yeah, and that was.
Speaker 2:You know, I was a pre-9-11 guy and I was all you know. You know there's nothing going on, all I do is mop. And I had an old uh platoon sergeant, uh staff sergeant, minor and uh, he's like, if all you want to do is get shot at, he's like you just keep on signing papers around here because you will get shot at if you stay here long enough. And uh, and he was right because, like, he told me that and I think three or four months later, you know, 9-11 had occurred and it was and it was going down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that that's. You cannot put it. Put it in better words mentorship and coaching young war fighters has to be about reminding them the importance of being prepared and doing your job. That's just it. You're going to get called at some point.
Speaker 2:You're going to get called up and specifically speaking, your chances of getting called are higher than uh than not yeah, I mean yeah, especially if we keep voting for these people in the current administration.
Speaker 1:yeah, it's coming, just have patience.
Speaker 2:The water is boiling. I know, I know it was. It was just lukewarm when we got in, but it's steaming yeah.
Speaker 1:The world is on fire and it is. It is hard to sit back and understand that, hey, your time in combat, your time as a leader in the military is over. And how do you move over into that next phase of your life? How do you transition effectively from being the guy that's at the tip of the spear to being the guy that now focuses on home, focuses on mentoring and coaching other young adults, other men outside of the military?
Speaker 2:That's the tricky part. I still, you know, find value in my time. I love supporting, but you know the two things I can speak intelligently about. If you want to join the Coast Guard, you know, sure, but I can't. I don't know if that's cool or not, but I love talking to people, we know, yeah, I love talking to people that are thinking about a career in the military. Yeah, and offering advice, I truly did love everywhere. I think I was at the right place at the right time.
Speaker 2:My entire career, driving tanks on the weekend.
Speaker 2:In high school, my first sergeant wanted to kill me, but I wasn't getting, you know, duis, I was getting tanks stuck in the mud, but that, to me, everything was a big adventure, yeah, and then as a, as a young, a young man, you know, being in the infantry moldedly, molded me into being, um, you know, a confident leader. You know, on the battlefield I never served in combat per se as a infantryman, but it, it, it put the foundation there for me to be successful in the other organizations that I was in, um, and then just the value of my service, you know, I, I was always proud to be an american, but in the cocky, um, kind of way that a young man is. Yeah, why do you love the dallas cowboys? Well, I'm from dallas. Well, that's cool, but for me, I I truly started to love the country through my service and so, you know, I became one of those guys. When they, when they sing the stark spangled banner in a football game, I tear up every time now yeah, it definitely.
Speaker 1:Serving your nation in uniform changes everything. Like I'm I wasn't born here and that is something that changed Like my ability to serve in I mean historically important units like the 82nd. That was huge for me, like when I'm, when I am able to say like I served in one of the most historical military units as a paratrooper not being born in this country, I'm like fuck, yeah, I got to wear those fucking double aces on my sleeves deployed with that unit. I'm so connected to our lineage now, not because of a father or a grandfather, but just being able to serve in that unit and then serving as a Green Beret and I'm like fuck, dude, it's the most American fucking thing you can do and I got to experience that. Now I get to leave that as a legacy for my kids if they choose to serve. But it does connect you to this country and it makes you extremely appreciative for what we have here and it makes you like, it's not the toxic patriot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's for you, but for your, for your family, because you know how many times have you, you know, met somebody and they asked oh, you were in the 82nd, you know. Oh, my, my great-grandfather was in the 82nd. Exactly, cool, I guess. But it means something to the those families for forever yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's funny how more people recognize and understand that through the lens of World War II than they ever will Just like, oh, your special operations or your Green Beret, well, it's the same thing as the Navy SEALs. Like, no, it's not the same fucking thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:We can't afford cocaine, we have to do it.
Speaker 1:It's different. We don't get the book deals or the movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you know. I think that's, um, that's a unique thing about that sf regiment is, um, profound patriots. Um, that you know you as a green beret. You hardly ever wear it. Um, maybe your wife knows you're a green beret and, like you said, nobody else even knows what it is. Is that like a Navy SEAL and you're like no, it's totally different ways that I can't explain to you because, um, I think it's. It makes it. It's a unique person that wants to do that job. Um, and your biggest win as a Green Beret is getting the job done by talking somebody else into doing it. Yeah, which also is unique is, you know, the mission gets done Even if you were there and were a key player. Your job is to give all the credit to someone else. Yeah, that takes a special type of person.
Speaker 1:It does, absolutely. It's not about chest beating and taking ownership of the wins. Yeah, it's constantly being given over to your partner force and in your reporting and in everything that gets sent out and published. Um, I think we turned off too good. I have a theory.
Speaker 2:A lot of our um, you know, dod and civilian leaders. A lot of their misconceptions about the set success of the um Afghan Iraqi army was, when you really looked at it, like, yeah, on paper, you know, 99.99% of this operation was, you know that that host nation, military. But it only takes a few green, green berets on the ground to like put the morale through the roof. Yeah, um, that's a guy that will walk, point. That's a guy that will be the number one man on the breach and you know, even if the the ratio is like one, one green beret for ever 250 afghans, they act different when we're there and they do.
Speaker 2:And as soon as you take, you're like, as far as, like having one more rifle, the guy doesn't influence the battlefield that much, um, but he's got a, he's got an american flag on his arm and it it does something to a unit when we're there. And I really think that a lot of the misconceptions like, oh, they're doing good, they're there. And I really think that a lot of the misconceptions like, oh, they're doing good, they're doing good, when there is at least an American there, they're doing great. Look over here, these places that are getting just absolutely destroyed or just leaving in the middle of the night before the battle, no American presence whatsoever, and it just does something to those units.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely true, man, very few, um, specifically in Afghanistan, like the KK mission, like dudes, were proficient, they were hitters in every form and definition of that, that, uh, that slang term. They wanted to fight, go to some other commando units and while he what? He did not want to step out and go on a mission without a Green Beret with him. Yeah, totally, totally different. Yeah, no-transcript. And I want to reflect back to something that you mentioned about that senior leader type of persona, as a Green Beret, always willing to stay a little extra, give a little bit more to the new guys so that they could be prepared, so they could be ready. You were in afghanistan, like, specifically on that day, like what was earl thinking about? This is like did you think this is going to be your last trip? Were you planning with? Like hey, I am done after this. I have done everything I can to mentor and take care of these dudes.
Speaker 2:I'm like this is going to be my last one I have never felt like it was my last one, um. You know, in 2013 it was supposed to be that we were winning, everybody was leaving, we're closing everything and and, uh, I felt some pressure like we have to, you know, go fast because we're leaving here. I've never truly felt like it was my last one, um, and and I think I just I kind of got near that we're to it cause, you know the 20 years, so my, the majority of my career we were at war. Uh, I just thought it was going to last forever.
Speaker 2:To be honest with you, the point is I was down to always go one more time. Um, very sobering thing for me is I ended up having a peer of mine. His son worked for me no shit right and it's so. He's a green beret. It's not like I had some 18 year old kid. This kid has served elsewhere, went through the q course. You know he's a man and I'm like, looking at my son, I'm like is my son gonna have to take over this war for me before? Like, I don't want to. I want to hand down, you know, like a camaro to my son. I don't want to hand down a conflict in the middle east.
Speaker 1:Yeah, signing it, yeah, signing property over to your kid right, which has happened. Which has happened. We have had numerous green berets serve with their kids that were now green berets, yeah my, uh, my.
Speaker 2:My son said he wanted to be a. Uh, he wanted to be on a free fall team and jump with daddy, and it just absolutely crushed his mother. She had a, a panic attack oh man calm down. I wanted to be a freaking astronaut or a dinosaur when I was nine, so he's. We've got time for him to grow out of this.
Speaker 2:Do not have a panic attack yet, earl, you can't be a dinosaur, just can't so I was like but I'll tell you what if you come after him and tell him he can't do that, you're guaranteeing that. That's where you're gonna. You're gonna fulfill that prophecy.
Speaker 1:Just no nod, a smile, babe just shake your head, it'll happen for sure yeah, having that and seeing it not just in in the soft community but in the conventional, like I would see my friends drive to benning to pin their kids wings on them and then deploy like that, that's insane yeah, and that's.
Speaker 2:And when I see these people serving with their children, I'm like what a nightmare scenario because, um, guys that work for me, I'll, you know, I'll assume my fair share of the risk and I'll be like, all right, take point, knowing that there's a you know, there's a good chance that he could get killed, I don't know that I could do that with my son, uh yeah, and so it would be a weird like why am I always in the back? Like because protective bubble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's um, it's a weird thing war that never seems to end like, especially when you redeploy the same areas, like a lot of us have fond memories of going back the same ale going back the same areas, and it's so weird al-assad being in the news right now.
Speaker 2:It's, it's literally giving me chills because I'm, like, two years there. Yeah, I know, I smoked a cigar right there. I know exactly where that is. Yeah, yeah, it's part of uh, I think that you know, when you look, you look at the history of our country, that's our thing, man, the, the middle east and us always seem to be tangled up.
Speaker 2:People blame it on oil, but it's, it's profoundly deeper than that. Yes, um, and it, you know, the shores of tripoli, literally, we were there, um, you know, fighting to stop the slavery of uh citizens on the high seas, like. So the middle east has always, um, just been off as far as foreign policy meet up with us. So I, I really uh, you look at the founding fathers, thomas jefferson, you know, avoid that area at all costs. Those people, we can't deal with them. No, and every time we go over there and try and mesh our two civilizations, it always ends up into armed conflict because they're just so profoundly different yeah, and we keep propping different governments up and sending so much money, resources and our own men and women.
Speaker 2:And that's why I try to explain to people back here, like nothing we do good in that region is ever perceived as good. We are the boogeyman, we are the bad guys, and they're like because of the government. I'm like, no, because of you, you are the problemyman. We are the bad guys and I'm like because of the government. I'm like, no, because of you, you are the problem. Us citizen. Uh, you teach your women how to read. Uh, it's illegal to beat them. Um, like that, these are foreign concepts, uh, in most of the middle East, and they, you know everything we do is just ghastly to them. And so when you try and blend those civilizations there's, it's going to always um, create some friction. That's, that's uh, going to break out into violence. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Whenever I try to explain Americans and North Americans arguing about if peppercorn or a jalapeno is an actual spice. Uh, we're talking about, like, how you treat your fellow man, and in the west we have a different, um, manner of looking at. No, there's, it's, it's, there's slave markets in libya. If we went right now, um, we would be the bad guys. You know the, the cocky americans coming in here and tell us how to live. I'm like well, you're selling. The Quran says it's okay. I'm like are you? Sure.
Speaker 1:Dare you impose your rules on us.
Speaker 2:What's up, bootlicker? I just think selling people is bad.
Speaker 1:I don't know what do you you, piece of shit, get out of here. You're a white man in America. You have no say.
Speaker 2:Cause a white man in america. You have no say because you know they're um. I remember talk. I always talked to my commandos at night my afghan commandos because I wanted a them to like me so that they didn't kill you. Sit up reading the crayon all night and then come throw hand grenades at me while I was asleep like I was gonna kill an infidel. But you know, earl, seems like a nice guy.
Speaker 1:it's like seeing Billy Madison Just scratching out all your teammates' names.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we actually yeah, but you know just the stuff I would tell them naively. They would just be like, yeah, you know, but they're like, how do you? You know, how do you, uh, how do you get food into your house while you're deployed? You know, like my wife goes to the store and I thought that my wife can drive and that she goes to the store by herself. You know, you, you, you know, I might as well told him that she's a prostitute, uh, because, um, um, those, it was just so obscene to them that that she's out of the house by herself and that she drives. Yeah, and uh, you know, I told my that my wife has a gun. Um, like, well, don't you worry about, like criminals, like I mean, I think about it, but you know, my wife has a gun. If there's criminals she'll shoot them. And like, your wife has a gun and she goes outside the house, what are you, what are you gay?
Speaker 1:yeah, dude, it's. It's so weird, it's such a weird culture. I remember the the most, the most ridiculous thing.
Speaker 2:It's not, it's different it's a beautiful ancient culture, that earl this is my show and it's fucking weird.
Speaker 1:I remember one of the greatest things one of one of our interpreters is like I want to show you pictures from my wedding. I'm like yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, you just left, had your wedding, and he shows his pictures and it's all just pictures of him.
Speaker 2:It's just pictures of him like glamour shots and I'm like nice and you know she's in a burke, they still won't take her picture because it would be wrong, you know yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's an acquired taste.
Speaker 2:If it's for you, it's for you, if not, it's um there's things I think that they nail and then some of the stuff is just big, huge miss.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah there's. Say what you will about Western ways, but I think we're doing okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we get too far ahead of the horse every now and then. But people ask me like like really, you know, especially civilians, like really dig into, like what motivated me? And I was like, if you've ever been exposed to radical Islam and you have children, like you can't help but want to pick up a rifle, I want, I want it. You know, I was very willing to die in some Ridge in Afghanistanghanistan. If that's as far as they got, yeah, and and I I would fully rather um keep our foreign policy where you fight, you know, five to ten thousand miles away from the country, rather than ever um have those people anywhere near my neighborhood yeah, dude, completely agree.
Speaker 1:Like that's, um, that's something I think every, every one of us within our, our soft community feels the same way. They keep everything away from home, like, but it feels like more and more it's being brought in like ideologies are dangerous and we keep funneling yeah, if we had to pick like, hey, quit looking for cocaine and let's start talking about um.
Speaker 2:Does this person truly believe in the american system of governance or are they coming here to start something new? Yeah, we don't need something new, um, so, and it's. I tell people this it's kind of as a joke, but uh, every suicide bomber um, not suicide bomber every ID is suicide bombers. They don't have a longterm plan, but I and placers, it was always a stopgap job for them until they could get to the United States, and then they were going to be a truck driver or um, what was the other big job? They, what was the other big job? They always want truck driver or something else.
Speaker 2:And I was like don't you think that having your like you know your fingerprints once you touch the bomb, like yeah, we, we know who you are. And if you kill an american um, you kind of you go on a list where we never let you live in the country and they're like what, why come on? What is weird about that? We don't like it when you kill us, so we don't want you living in our country. It's weird to me that that's your two yeah either. Most people are like I'm gonna chase this music dream, uh, and. But you know, if it doesn't catch on, I'm gonna stay in med school. That's weird. That's weird for me. Get insurgent and fight the us government and possibly die. Or, you know, be a you know hard-working taxpaying citizen of the us government. Like that's two weird paths, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, or come here and try to change things to make it like the place you fled from makes no sense to me yeah, crazy to me and the fact that they're that we have to have the discussion about having, uh, because of the, the islamic faith, the first thing they do is you get 20 or 30 of them living on the same neighborhood and they want a semi-autonomous zone and they want some form. You know they have, they have hoas that institute sharia law, and to me that that sharia law, um should be outlawed in this country, if you like it. It counters the constitution of the united states at almost every turn.
Speaker 2:So anytime, somebody tells me they want sharia law inside the united states, get them out of the country immediately and put them on a list. You know they can't ever come back. And it drives me crazy, um, arguing with different facets of the political spectrum where they're like well, why can't they have it? Like you realize, under sharia law, if a woman gets raped she can't press charges. She needs five credible male witnesses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to me that seems like a really terrible legal system and it's and it's taking hold of areas within the united states already I mean it's here, and in uh, you know, no society really meshes with with um islam.
Speaker 2:You either become islamic or you you drive them out they. They don't mesh with your society. There is no middle ground with Islam.
Speaker 1:There's no integration, it's takeover.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for me, I'm, I'm always confounded by it, cause I'm like I guess I could quit drinking and I could be a Muslim, um, but you know, if you're gay and you're, you know, pro drug use and you think women should walk around naked, uh, and men should mind, I don't understand how you're friends with, with anybody that that bears the flag of Islam, because, uh, you are literally a useful idiot and you're, you're, you'll never see it, because they, they move slowly, uh, but you're dooming your children, uh, to servitude or death, because that's, that's where they move in You're that useful idiot.
Speaker 1:And uh early.
Speaker 2:It's it, and early in the stand it's. It's very profound, but that was a. You know the. The predominant religion of afghanistan was hindu. It's been completely erased from their history.
Speaker 1:Um, and they're gone, wiped clean, wiped clean the statues, everything removed. Yeah, and I'm like there's, they're showing.
Speaker 2:They're not even lying to you. They're telling you what they're going to do. So you know, countless times you hear these people talking. They're coming to this country to build a foothold and their dream and their inspiration for living in our country is to erase our former governance and put up a flag of Islam. That's their plan, and if that doesn't scare you, it should.
Speaker 1:But, earl, you're a colonizer and you're a white male. How dare you well people.
Speaker 2:You caught up in the white male colonizer. I'm like you tell me you skipped history class, without telling me you skipped history class exactly the predominant societies, for you know 3 000 years of recorded history, or india and china like european powers. We got like 300 years of of dominance and we're supposed to feel bad about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, give me a break, yeah if you research on slave trade, it'll it'll blow your mind and arguably, you know the doomsayers and naysayers will say our time is was fleeting and is fading now. So, uh, sure, but you know there's. You know nothing that aggravates me more than the people complaining about the past instead of working on the future. Oh my god, yes, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's just a every. It seems like every every other day there's a new uh faction that's calling for someone to get canceled from the history books.
Speaker 2:It's like fuck dude, and I'm, you know, for me, I'm like the whole point of this country is that that we're supposed to, um, do right. I'm not saying you should, you know, forget but forgive. You know my family fought for the South Um, you know, uh, that's not my view. Yeah, I, I think that it was one of the most just wars that the country's ever been involved in. Like you know, slavery is a an insidious evil, so I don't know why I'm I'm punished for, you know, my forefathers, yeah, decisions, you know, like, I don't believe in it. If somebody tried to enslave you, I'd kill them. If the us government would let me, I'd go fight in libya to close the slave market. But you know, it's not good, uh, for our foreign image and uh, foreign engagement to eliminate slavery in all cases. Sometimes it's it's uh, it's good, apparently, yeah, yeah. So in certain places, like, I'm willing to go die right now to stop slavery.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I have to like, hear it from you about how I'm a bad person now it's crazy times, man, and I gotta ask you transitioning from the military into this war, into this new woke culture and woke environment, what was that like?
Speaker 2:uh, it's weird because I'm used to telling the truth.
Speaker 2:Uh, uh it seems like American culture is embracing this um unique public image of. I know that everything I'm saying is bullshit, but I'm going to say it anyway. And as long as you are willing to spout nonsense, you're a good person. And if you stand up and and speak any kind of truth or fact, uh, you're a bad guy. And if you stand up and speak any kind of truth or fact, you're a bad guy. And you know, the Greek philosophers that kind of lit the spark for Western civilization just must be absolutely rolling in their graves. Yeah, at a time, you know, a concept would get rolled out and we'd roll it around and figure out what its pros and cons were, and now we can't even talk about it there's no civil discourse, there's absolutely zero.
Speaker 1:It's immediately attack you for being a misogynist, being a racist, being somebody that that it's attacking a poor minority sector, right like having a discussion right now, like it's.
Speaker 2:It's dangerous and if I?
Speaker 2:am if I am explain it to me other than I'm a bad person, because, yes, pretty sure I'm not. So if you can't explain it to me, I, I just I have no use for your argument. Um, because I can explain the rational reasoning behind everything that I choose to do inside and outside of my house and I I feel like a lot of people are just weak and it's peer pressure, like, oh, I feel like this because I don't want people looking at me funny on my street and I'm like, wow, cool, neat. Yeah, what other rules will you follow so people won't be mean to you?
Speaker 1:Did it. It's yeah, it's frustrating. Frustrating seeing people that you go against this narrative to speak their truth, but they're so scared like it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Nothing irks me more than like well, I you know I can't say what I'm thinking. I'm like in this country. You can, if more people would. I think we, we would probably be better off as a country. But when you, when you have a huge, um, drastically outweighed minority, this is willing to, like, berate anything that conflicts with their view, and it's on the left and the right, you get the whole middle just tiptoeing around both of them. Um, I think that that is, uh, something we could do for a change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need more individuals that are willing to actually speak the truth and run for office in local uh community and in broader government office like and then go back and do what they were doing what's that?
Speaker 2:serve the country in public office and then go do something else? Yeah, yeah, don't stay there forever yeah, don't say that't say that Of all the problems we're having in this country, in Congress and the Senate we have the least amount of veterans. We have the oldest Congress and Senate in the history of the country. If you're going to explain to me that that's not two big problems, I really challenge you to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what about you? Any aspirations for running for office? We're seeing a surge in Green. Any aspirations for running for office? We've. We're seeing a a a surge in green berets that are running for office.
Speaker 2:I love you know I got, I got a couple of them down here. Uh, love those guys. Um, I just don't think, uh, I don't think I got it in me and my family definitely doesn't. Um, yeah, no, no, if I had done less time, maybe, but I think I think we're we're done serving the country for my generation. I'll leave that to my kids.
Speaker 1:They're trying to do something, damn it. So what do you do now, these days?
Speaker 2:So I work for Saab, which is nice. I still get to touch all the tactical units. They keep me out there with the places I serve, so I'm slowly transitioning to being a civilian.
Speaker 1:You're still in the team room. You're literally in the team room.
Speaker 2:I just got back from 10th group Nice. I was out at their safari and talking to their uh, um command teams about you know, problems that they're having and and uh, so I'm still, you know, I'm still in the mix, um, I get getting enough of it just to kind of scratch that it's for me and not so much that my wife knows I'm cheating on her.
Speaker 1:the regiment still the regiment's a side chick now. Yeah, remember uh you remember the?
Speaker 2:uh, I forget who wrote it, but there's a describing the sf regiment as a mistress. Yeah, yeah, so like she, I see her on weekends from time to time.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, you're one of the few that gets to continue.
Speaker 2:That that love affair, um that bitch, ran out on me a while back, but she still sends me some nudes, there's a 100% chance that there's a place for you to get back involved. Oh man. I can't thank you enough for being here man, she's like we could do six months in the Philippines together.
Speaker 1:Stop it. My wife will hear you. She reads my texts. Oh man, Dude, thank you for jumping on today. Man, it's been a pleasure. Again, Earl Plumlee, if folks want to get in touch with you, do you have a LinkedIn or social media presence? I?
Speaker 2:have an Instagram and while we're here, yeah, I have an instagram. Hit me up. I love, uh, doing engagements. I love speaking about my service. Uh, I also it's the one with the blue check I I do not need your money. The us government gives me hundreds of dollars, uh, for my service. So, uh, if, if somebody's asking for money through social media, it is not me.
Speaker 1:Fuck, hold up one second. I am Ah shit, too late.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I have an Instagram. It's Earl Palmley official. You want to hear about my service. I got guys hit me up there constantly and asking all the questions that people want to know before they go put a uniform on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's one of the most beautiful things about this chapter in our lives being sort of like a mentor to countless individuals that reach out and want to know like, hey, what's SF like, what's being a Green Beret like, and that's something that's awesome and I think it actually does a lot more for recruitment than we think, if you're another.
Speaker 2:Every time you really talk to a population of young Americans, their genesis story is usually one person that they really understood or bonded with, that encouraged them to serve, and when you look at how people that come from these dynastic families pick jobs, they were told to do it by a mentor in some fashion, whether it be a family member or some guy they met. Yeah, and I think it's a huge portion of how our recruitment's done.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. You heard it. Folks Slide into Earl's DMs, ask those weird and strange questions and he'll get back to you. Or hit us up at psychhoppodcastgmailcom or right now in this episode you can actually text us. So if you're on Spotify, apple Podcasts, you can go right into the episode description, send us a text, tell us what you think about the episode, what you think about Earl and if you'd like to have him back on the show. Uh, earl, thank you again, man. Uh, I can't wait to have you back on to talk about some more uh, spicy topics. Let's do it, uh, before and after the elections, because I really want to know your take you know, we got a very exciting election coming up, so it's gonna be spicy.
Speaker 1:I'm team Kamala yeah, alright fuck. No to everybody listening. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Take care. If you like what we're doing and you're enjoying the show, don't forget to share us like us. Subscribe and remember we get through this together. Take care, don't forget to share us like us. Subscribe and remember we get through this together. Take care.
