Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
From War to Brotherhood: Brandon Strand on Resilience, Loss & Life After the Infantry
Let us know what you think! Text us!
In this powerful episode of the Security Halt! Podcast, host Deny Caballero sits down with Brandon Strand, a former infantryman, to explore the deep bonds of brotherhood forged through military service. Brandon reflects on his journey through the infantry, sharing raw insights into deployment life, leadership lessons, and the emotional toll of loss.
This candid conversation dives into the importance of staying connected to your community, embracing personal growth after service, and developing mental and physical resilience during life’s most difficult transitions. Brandon’s story is a reminder that strength comes not only from combat—but from vulnerability, connection, and healing.
🔥 Don’t miss this inspiring episode!
Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Security Halt! Podcast on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts for more powerful stories and tools to support veteran mental health and leadership growth.
🎙️ Don’t forget to follow, share, like, and subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts for more unfiltered veteran stories and mental health conversations.
BE A BRO! Support the show!!
buymeacoffee.com/sechaltpodcast
https://buymeacoffee.com/sechaltpodcast
Looking for hand crafted, custom work, military memorabilia or need something laser engraved? Connect with my good friend Eric Gilgenast.
Instagram: haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main
https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:16 Military Journey and Experiences
05:04 Transitioning into Military Life
07:39 Challenges and Growth in the Infantry
10:22 Roles and Responsibilities in Deployment
12:56 Reflections on Leadership and Team Dynamics
15:28 Memorable Characters and Their Impact
17:56 Loss and Legacy in the Military Community
21:22 The Importance of Brotherhood and Connection
23:16 The Legacy of Fred C and His Impact
24:39 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
26:51 The Value of Young Soldiers and Their Resilience
28:14 Learning from Negative Experiences
29:18 The Journey of Personal Growth and Responsibility
32:09 The Role of Social Media in Military Life
33:52 Reconnecting with the Past and Building Community
35:59 Creating a Supportive Network for Veterans
38:17 Endurance Challenges and Personal Development
41:17 Navigating Life After Service
43:13 The Need for Connection and Support Among Veterans
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Follow Strand on Social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.strand.5/friends
Email: brandon_140@hotmail.com
Produced by Security Halt Media
Brandon Strand. Welcome to the Secureio podcast. How's it going, man? I'm doing well and yourself a lot better. Dude, it is, uh, it is a busy, freaking day and it's like I'm in Alabama now. So, like every afternoon, it's like insane thunderstorm. So I'm like I'm like watching the wind outside like rattle fences. I'm like, all right, just uh, let's not lose power. Lost power during an interview the other day. I was like sitting there talking and then like everything cuts out. I'm like motherfucker. So hopefully the weather got cold. That would be brandon and I. We go way back, way, way, way, way, way, way back to those listening back in the 82nd days 2504, always proud and very happy to have another paratrooper. And today, man, like I want to dive into your story. Take us all the way back, dude. I want to, just for a spoiler alert, we're going to cover everything, specifically your transition, dude, when you got out. But first, what got you? What was what made you want to serve in the almighty 82nd airborne?
Speaker 2:so I wanted to serve in the almighty 82nd Airborne. So I wanted to serve in the military my whole life. But when I was 17, my mom wouldn't sign off on the paperwork, so I had to go to college, met a girl, got a house settled down, so I didn't end up joining until I was 24 when things kind of just started to fall apart. But it fell apart in a way that allowed me to be free to leave and follow the dreams that I'd had prior. So when I got to the unit I was one of the old guys.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say that, like 24, looking back seems like so wise and older when the average private is like 18, 19.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, and actually when I started out, special forces went through SOPSI and everything. I ended up having a couple of knee surgeries and after I got med dropped I ended up over at 504. And you were actually the very first NCO. I don't know if you remember, but you're the one who picked me up from head to toe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude. Oh, my God, that's like forever ago. God, I was such an asshole back in those days.
Speaker 2:Forgive me days, Forgive me. No, and that's where I was a little bit nervous. You know, I had just left SWCC airborne school in processing basic training, everything else, so I was just expected to be yelled at and everything else had three duffel bags and a rolling tote bag and you're like, hey, give me one of those things. I'm just like, oh my God, like they're, they're helping me. For once they're not yelling at me. This is different.
Speaker 1:It was not everybody got that experience, mind you.
Speaker 2:No, no, yeah. Well, that's where even Hutton was saying I like to go pick up the new guys because we like to fuck with them. But then when I was as old as you and you're like, well, how old are you? And I'm like 25 now and you're like, well, what did you do beforehand? I'm like I've been with my business company now for eight years and you know, I got a bunch of money in the bank and owned a home and so forth and so on. And you were like, well, fuck, I think we want to keep this guy. I remember you bringing me into the first platoon office and you're like we're going to keep him if he can answer this question. You're like, which platoon is the best platoon? I don't know, I'm just a new guy who showed up. And you're like it's easy. And I'm like, well, obviously first is the best right. And you're like, see, smart guy, let's keep them. But the bear had other plans, so I went over to first the bear, timothy Jordan.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. We'll reflect on that guy later on. Yeah, man, people forget that you can come in the military at all sorts of different ages and you were one of the many wonderful additions to BCO that didn't fit the rank and file and the mold of being a brand new like what behind the ears? 18-year-old kid. Like you had time, you explored life before you went in and that made you a valuable asset dude. Like you weren't just another young guy, you had information, you had life experience and I think that's something that I want to dive into. What was like getting the third and then realizing that, like you, had some characters in that platoon? I'll let you introduce what life was like, because it's very different when you were able to come in and be like yeah, I can sort of help you with life.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and one thing I wasn't really good at is the sarcasm and the thick skin stuff. You know I was before I joined the military. I was much more of a beta type of person Just follow directions. You tell me what to do and I do it. The military really brought out much more of an assertive and I can do pretty much any goddamn thing that I want to and I need to do. So I got a lot of really good skills like that.
Speaker 2:But I remember Mignone was my squad leader and Hal was in the team and Hal cracked a joke. But I didn't catch it as a joke, I took it as literalism. So then I repeated it back to Mignone and you could just watch his facial expression drop and just like what did you say to me? I'm just repeating what I was told by the senior specialist who told me to tell you and I don't know what's going on and I apologize if I'm stepping on toes so there's a little bit of a learning curve. But once I got the hang of it, fell in love with the guys, still trying to connect more now than I wish I would have in the past. But as you grow you get wiser, new opportunities open up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not the. It goes by fast time. In the military especially, I think it's different. A lot of mos is where you have this sort of like shop mentality, like 88 mics that working at a motor pool or an s1 shop function, it can be really relaxed and you kind of get to do these fun things like celebrate this sort of day and like infantry is different, man, it's just like yes, you're not doing like sexual harassment day, wear blue jeans to work day. Like no, you're going to area j, you're going to suck and live in a fucking cesspool because it's going to rain non-stop. Like that's, that's our experience, that that's our lived experience.
Speaker 2:And our op tempo too, like the very. I think it was the second day I got to the unit. We were out at the shoot house and Bradley Shane if you remember him he's he'll come up later in the conversation but that's the shoot house that you guys got to go do some cool like spec ops type stuff, cause the guy was a former I don't know what he was, I was too new. I made dumb you know day one private mistakes type thing that he shook his head at and he was just like well, you did exactly as I said. It was wrong, but it was exactly as I said, so go over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are everybody's like. Everybody has to go through that. That's the amateur experience. You gotta be a novice beginner's mind. That's the um, the inventory experience. You gotta be a novice beginner's mind. And sometimes it's painful, man, sometimes it's brutally fucking painful. Like what was it like showing up, like being older, being wiser in certain regards, but then having you know your, your senior, the guys in charge you is a little younger than you. What was that like? For me it wasn't too difficult.
Speaker 2:I've always gravitated towards older persons. Most of my friends groups tends to be a little bit older than myself. I tend to fall in line with subject matter experts. If you're an expert, I don't care. If you're five years old, 50 years old, I'm going to do what you say because you have the trained, learned experience. I think that was just something that came along a little bit more with me being a 24-year-old adult. That was just something that came along a little bit more with me being a 24-year-old adult. I have the answer to all of life's problems. If you do it this way, everything in the world will be better. I've been around the block now for a few years. I'm starting to realize I don't know everything, and when I don't know everything, go to somebody who does so. In that respect I was able to get along with a lot of my leadership really well. For me it was awkward and still is. I see everybody as peers, so you know, eventually I ended up having to have surgeries and stuff and I was working operations.
Speaker 2:And when I was in there I was just an E4. They tried to promote me and I declined promotion because be no do. If I'm an infantryman and I can't do an infantryman's job, I shouldn't be an NCO leading other infantrymen. But I'm reading the first sergeant's emails. I'm writing OERs for the officers. I'm calling Lieutenant Kearns but I'm not calling him lieutenant. I'm like, hey, Kearns, I need to see you in my office. You got like 45 minutes. Make sure you bring your OER and everything else. We've got to get this shit taken care of. Even at one time I went up to the battalion headquarters. I was dropping off some awards and the sergeant major stood at ease and he went oh, don't you know who that is? That's sergeant major strand. You. You go to parade rest. When he walked by and I know he was just fucking around, type of a thing- I didn't know.
Speaker 1:I didn't know you turned down promotion. I knew I knew, coming out of deployment you had issues. You had some knee issues, but I didn't know how bad it was. I didn't know how bad it was. Did you know that sort of your time was coming to an end and it was just like I'm not going to be able to continue this?
Speaker 2:Not so much but also a little bit. So before we had even deployed to Iraq, I was actually on medical discharge paperwork from was it Womack or whoever whatever hospitals there Because I had blown my knee out, had surgery, went to selection. They found out I had blown my knee out. My physicality started to go downhill. I went from the front of the road marches to the middle, to the back. Eventually, they ended up having to cut my pants off me because my knee had swelled up to the point where I couldn't even get my pants off anymore.
Speaker 2:But you know, with our op tempo that we had on going on during G1 and everything the bear and Captain Miller are like sorry, we need to every body, every hands on deck you're deploying with us and after we get back then, you know, have your surgeries and med board you. But, after I had deployed, I started out doing Intel work.
Speaker 1:We built that like company. Like fuck, I forgot yeah.
Speaker 2:COIS Company.
Speaker 1:Intelligence Support Team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, so and that's where then I was working up at battalion. So you know, as an E3 private I'm brushing elbows with lieutenant colonels and majors and staff sergeants and sergeant first classes, which also led to me being more of a seeing everybody as my peer, not necessarily. The rank kind of got me in trouble a couple of times.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think they made the right choice selecting you. Did you go into that deployment? Did you feel sort of like fuck, dude, I'm getting like I I got here should be doing this job with my infantry brothers, but now they got me doing this fucking. Did you feel any sort of like a heartache? Or did you feel like now, this, this can be a cool fucking mission too?
Speaker 2:it was a lot of different things. So first I felt like a failure, having blown my knee out, not being able to make it through selection, you know. So that was tough. And then, getting to the line, I'm like, okay, well, at least I get to be an infantryman, they're like, actually you're not, well, you're you're an infantryman, but you were going to task you with another task and purpose.
Speaker 2:So then I felt sidelined and kind of useless. And then, once I started doing the job the type of person I am you give me a mission and I'm going to do everything I can. You know, you're only as strong as your weakest link and I'm going to make sure that I am not the weak link here, so I'm going to do everything I possibly can. And then I started to realize how important each and every single other role is. And you know, I was sitting with I think it was McKenzie staff sergeant type type second platoon and I sat and I gave them a brief before they went out on most likely course of action, most deadly course of action roads, terrain, weather, so forth and so on.
Speaker 1:He's like, holy fuck, I feel like I'm the lieutenant colonel and you just told me the entire battlefield AO Like well that's perspective going later on in my career, going into special operations, going and becoming a Green Beret, understanding like how vital it is to have this information and then, looking back, 90% of the time nobody knew what the fuck was going on. You're just yes.
Speaker 2:You're going on a patrol.
Speaker 1:Cool. Are they bad guys? Maybe Are there IADs Certainly. How dangerous? Yes, pretty dangerous A lot. What do you want us to do? I don't fucking know, just go.
Speaker 2:React to contact Battle drill one alpha, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, who was in that COISO with you?
Speaker 2:So, sergeant Burbank was the leader burbank navy guy, navy guy, right yes I don't remember what he was prior, but he was a reclass. He came from, yeah, recruiter and a bunch of other stuff. Yeah, that came in as an e5 expecting. You know, I'm an e5 infantryman now, so you'll respect me, even though this e2 private. Whoever has more line time than I do.
Speaker 1:Burbank. I remember that there was a couple other cats in there.
Speaker 2:Yep, we had.
Speaker 1:Fish Ronald Wilson. Oh my gosh, yeah, ronnie, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep. And then we had our NBC guy starts with the name S s drawn a blank. He always did the night shift, though, so he was just, like you know, tracking where people are on the battlefield and who's here and who's not here I'm tracking, I'm tracking, yeah, yeah, uh, halo, yeah and then we had, uh, specialist wilson, fireball wilson, I think, didn't. He come from first platoon, so he, he was the White Wilson. You know, the Hadouken shoots fireballs.
Speaker 1:He was my contribution. Gotcha, yeah, and that's where you know everybody has their place.
Speaker 2:Yes, he as an infantryman, he doesn't have the mentality I think to be you know, but he was wicked smart I knew he was smart. Incredibly smart, and that's where he was sitting and making diagrams and he's like, well, this guy's linked to this guy and this guy's linked to this guy, and this guy was spotted in this ao and this guy's vehicle's this one, and we just apprehended this person. So the network says that there's something going on over here.
Speaker 1:Sure is right, there's something going on it just goes to show you that 90 of the time we allocate, we need to do a better job of figuring out where people are properly fit for it and see the potential for people. I stumbled yeah, it's not because I was a smart, great leader, no, I was. I was an asshole. And wilson didn't fit the mentality of our team or our squad. Uh, he was definitely, and it was one of those jobs where you're just like, oh fuck, dude, it's gonna to be a job for Intel. What am I going to do now?
Speaker 1:I'm going to be hamstrung by this guy and then you pass him off in there and if only I would have been able, I could have done the same thing. But recognize the potential in his intelligence and who knows what he's doing right now, that motherfucker could be working for Andrew developing fucking drones. One of the greatest moments of like being able to reflect and realizing how much of a fucking idiot you were as a leader. But you missed. Your fuck up actually helped. It actually did like just being an asshole. Put the right person in the right place because, looking back, he was absolutely intelligent. Not the type of intelligence you need on a fire team arguably, arguably, uh, but the type of guy you need doing analysis work. And man, I really hope yeah.
Speaker 2:There's even a couple other examples too. I was last night. We'll get to a little bit later. What I've been working on I got in touch with, when I met him, specialist Shadmani. Now he's going to the Sergeant Major Board, he's on the blotter, he's going to the Sergeant Major's Academy and he still has that because he's still in. He still has that mentality. I said you know, hey, nagy's getting together with us and he's like holy shit, you know, that guy was a fuck-up Because he still has that thought process. And then Bradley, who's been out for a while I was talking about Boone.
Speaker 2:You know, gangly little little guy everything else.
Speaker 1:Have you seen him on facebook? Dude's a ripped jack motherfucker. I've worried about him for so many years because of nobody's more brutal than infantryman infantryman and yeah, that boy, that man now like whether he ever admits it.
Speaker 1:You know he went through some shit in his life, absolutely. And when he showed up to us because of the palate deformity, holy shit, dude. I mean, yeah, warriors are the hardest fucking people on each other and it's just like, oh man, I hope that he's been able to find the strength and the courage to friggin' move forward, because we were fucking brutal. I remember I won't say the guy's name, but man, we were hard on old Boone. It's not a but dude, the Warriors were a different breed but he was always brought into the fold, never excommunicated or pushed aside like Rose, because Rose was a piece of shit.
Speaker 2:That was before I had gotten there. I recognize.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you don't shower and you sleep with dip in and you do weird things, you're excommunicated from the platoon. But yeah, dude Boone, great kid, and at the testimony to what a hard worker he was.
Speaker 2:And that's even coming back to like you're saying, you have to start new to grow up. There was another. He was a free.
Speaker 1:O-Rock, O-Rock yes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah. He's now a drill and he's a DI. Get out of here. Training new recruits and everything. But the very first time that I had met him he was under Staff Sergeant Edwards, not the Larry type, the shorter blonde haired. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, staff Sergeant Ranger Ranger, ranger, eddie.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, and you know we're doing simulated contact type of a thing, and he gets down on, you know, distance, direction, description, so forth, so on, gets down and there's a tree like two feet to his front right and he just lays there for like 10 minutes All done it, all done it, yep. Front right and he just lays there for like 10 minutes. All done it, yep. Yes, and that's where the staff sergeant runs over there and just starts kicking him in the helmet. These are fucking bullets.
Speaker 1:I couldn't kick you if you were behind the goddamn tree, but I'm sure it's stuck in there and I will tell you you know he's passing that knowledge on. Staff sergeant ranger qualified edwards was one of the most high energy pit bulls you could ever be and a great leader, great, great, freaking leader. He's one of the few that ever stood up to the bear and one of the few that ever oh yeah, oh, fuck you him and okay, I'm gonna fucking butcher this. Was it martinez. He was second platoon. I can't fucking remember his name, but Edwards stood up to the bear many a times, many a fucking time. I'm surprised he fucking and I think the reality is Timothy Jordan. I have a hard time forgetting and ever forgiving this man for what he's done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he also brought us together, we all coales like around hating him because how awful he was.
Speaker 1:Yes, but eddie stood up to him in a big show of force because there was a lot of guys like with with eddie, a lot of people were like, oh man, he's rough like that dude, he knew his shit, he wanted you whether you like it or not, the dude wanted you to come back home and he, he did the job the best of his fucking ability. He was a firecracker man. That motherfucker was always on fire, ready to go. But you couldn't want a better leader next to you, or for a second.
Speaker 2:I think it was second platoon, yeah, second platoon or third was he a really big white guy, did a deployment with you guys he had the baby incident that kind of screwed with me mentally and, but okay, it started with an. It was like mix. No, no, no, that's different, that was a different guy, uh.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was one of the things that, uh, for me it was like always stood out to me. It's like when everybody else shied away from fucking going directly at the bear's throat and he had no problem, he did it. I think I witnessed it several times and I was like dude, dude, all right, that's a dude. I mean my guy's ass chewed at the end of the day by the platoon sergeant, but he did it in front of the entire fucking company and that's my dude. Hell, yeah, always, always a good dude. Yeah, there's some great guys in that fucking company, man, great fucking dudes, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, and that's where everybody's coming from a different background, a different experience. Everyone's got different skills that they can bring to the table.
Speaker 1:That's why I'm always like you know, we talk about Rangers, Navy SEALs. Fucking man, A paratrooper that signs up to just fucking get kicked in the dick and go after the enemy day in and day out, that's a dude.
Speaker 2:We need to coalesce and that's the main effort, man, that's the main effort and it's funny because they don't necessarily fit the mold. Two of the best guys that I remember is Eisman and Cohen. E know Eisman, you'd give him a .240 and I don't even know god-awful amounts of ammunition, and he was fat-bodied, whatever that is, and we're trying to get him chaptered out and he smoked, dope once or twice or something, but he couldn't quit. He didn't know how to quit. You know, if you fell down he would pick you and your weapon up with the 240 and the ammo and continue to drive on and you wouldn't even hear him there's two or anything same thing with cohen.
Speaker 2:We did one one joax, and he jumped out, bad landing. You know, winds are holding at three knots, we're good to jump and he burned in, hit the ground hard enough that he bounced. And when he finally woke up, all he kept saying is where's my rifle up? All he kept saying is where's my rifle? Where's my nods? I need my SI. Where's my rifle? We had taken all of that from him. That's what he was even saying a day later after the fact. You know just that.
Speaker 1:Not give up person, and that's where you get most of your TBI not service related do.
Speaker 1:I know that. That's why the infantry and paratroopers are so fucking phenomenal. Man like just eisman himself man, a character larger than life to impact, and not just his own platoon. But everybody, dude, everybody went out. Everybody has a story of going out with ice, everybody has a story of his kindness, his jokes, yeah, and I mean his friend to this day. I see it on facebook.
Speaker 1:He still missed the dude went on to become police officer, sadly passed away. And that's the thing that we don't focus enough. Man, like when a when a dude dies in combat, like that's fucking hard, horrible, but when? But when we lose guys as they're just getting to like that prime of their life, like figuring things out after service, that fucking sucks just as much. Dude, that's just like because you see guys struggle all the fucking time, it's when you have the victory. When you see somebody that's like fuck your police officer, you're, you're plugged into your community, you're doing great things for others, fuck, you're a police officer, you're plugged into your community, you're doing great things for others, and then drop of a hat, they're gone. And I know it's life. It's nothing guaranteed. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's everything.
Speaker 2:We're all going to go through it, and for me it's even harder. So you know, like Fred Steed, I still remember the exact phone call that came through McDevitt was the one who called and it killed me, but you know, until Valhalla and dying a warrior's death and everything else, whereas, like Eisman, he's now getting it together but he doesn't have everybody around him. He doesn't, you know, val, his gal, natalie, only had like three soldiers, whereas, like for Sarah Fredste, she had an entire company of people that were there helping to support her. And that's where it almost hurts more when it happens after the fact, because the network and the connection isn't there.
Speaker 1:That's a sad reality about how shitty we are at connecting. It's important to embrace the brotherhood. When you get out, make that brotherhood wider, cast your net far out. Reach out to Marines. Don't look at just yes, the brothers you serve with are important, but continue building relationships with other veterans. Help each other out, be there for each other, because that is that is heartbreaking to have that service and not be represented by your own community but your own warrior tribe losing fretsi was friggin. That's a difficult one man like that dude. Having watched his, I don't know if you were privy to this, but you know he got sent up to uh headquarters for a while yes, and he when he was brigade and then division and he said in a month I'm gonna be, yeah, I'm gonna be demoted, yeah.
Speaker 2:And sure enough, he was he fell.
Speaker 1:He fell apart, and that's a testament to almost God. Jack Carr couldn't have written a better fucking novel about Fred C, Because he called it All he ever knew. All he ever knew was Biko.
Speaker 2:Even before that last deployment he was sitting at CQ with me Every single day. He would finish his job at Battalion and Division, he came back to the company and he would sit there. But he even said you know, this is my last deployment, I'm not coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I was reading the synopsis from forget the name, I think it's McLeod, who's our PAO guy. He wrote a book and he pieced together the last moments of Fred C's life, the movement as he was maneuvering his guys through the firefight, and it reads exactly like somebody that knew exactly what they were doing, not only trying to take the fight to the enemy, but knowing that, like I'm gonna put myself out in the most ridiculous situation, so my guys have the best advantage over the enemy and if something happens something fucking happens I'm going, I'm taking the fight to them. He wasn't the type of guy to be like I'm gonna tiptoe in this danger.
Speaker 1:He's like fuck, no, follow me, we're going in this shit that's literally how I read like fucking follow me, we're going into this and I'm like fuck dude, like like that was fred c. The fact that he kept coming back to the company like a wayward dog, that was it. That's all he knew.
Speaker 2:That's all he knew.
Speaker 1:Through every different, you know, and it's like the last, the last connective tissue that I had to, that like first platoon family that I had, which started with Mac as our platoon sergeant. You know, michael mckenzie okay, you know, yep, joy fucking sours flemly demon.
Speaker 2:No, no, it wasn't semen. Oh, the pirate sea graves. So grab it sea graves.
Speaker 1:There we go, yeah sea graves mcclymon, stro, strobel, those guys seeing that last after come back from that deployment and seeing how fast like it dissipated, it was definitely far easier to go to selection after that second deployment because I realized like yeah, your family's been split up.
Speaker 1:There was a little bit in me that was like man, like I don't want Van Arshtel to go down there, they're going to Afghanistan. This is a real fight. I don't want Van Arshtel to go. I don't want Salgado to go. There's a new dynamic in the platoon. I don't want to miss out on this.
Speaker 2:I didn't even realize that those were your guys, because I am super close with both of them. I actually just got off the phone with both of them. I actually just got off the phone with both of them yesterday for the first time in like 12 years of talking to them.
Speaker 1:I will tell you I have had some great soldiers, some great paratroopers, my absolute heart of the best soldiers I ever had a chance to directly work with, directly lead Salgado, van Arsdale and Paracas 100%, 100%. Those guys could have been if they would have chose to stay in like I honestly think that we would have been seeing them on company command post, uh posters and all. They were just phenomenal soldiers and I'm biased. I'm biased because I spent time with them, but they were remarkable, fucking dudes and I am so happy that my journey ended there with those guys. As the last soldiers I I directly coached a mentor.
Speaker 1:Special forces is a little different. You have, yeah, had juniors, have been able to like, provide guidance, but it's not the same as being able to have your own paratroopers. It's like the last time you were directly 100%. I mean, besides my uplift Love, you Shout out to you dogs Because, as a chief, you know my last trip to Afghanistan, I got. Shout out to you dogs Because, as a chief, you know my last trip to Afghanistan, I got to. You know, work, have my little uplift kids and not the same, but you still get close to those guys because they're still. It's amazing to see how good young paratroopers are. That's the thing. Like everybody wants to be. Like man fucking special operations, the middle of night dude, that's all cool. Give me an 18 year old, 19 year old paratrooper from fucking the 82nd, I will show you some america's finest, because they will, bro, they will figure it out. They they don't. They don't know. Quit man. Like it's just amazing to see that. Like it's.
Speaker 1:I've seen some dudes that are like fuck man, I don't know if we don't have this. Like they, first of all, they go out there. They don't have air assets like we do. Awt, awt isn't coming on station like they do for us. These motherfuckers like, yeah, we're gonna be here all day. Fuck yeah, awesome, do it again tomorrow. It's like fuck yeah, they're hungry kids.
Speaker 1:And I look back at our time and it's like man, like I'm so glad I got to experience that, versus coming in through the X and missing that. I'm glad I experienced it, the good and the bad, because you know not to spend too much time on Timothy Jordan, so I absolutely think he's the most dog shit individual I've ever met. If this ever gets to him, I hope you're having a miserable day. I hope that you stub your toe twice today and three times on Sunday. I hope that you get charged with tax evasion. I hope your mail never gets to you on time. I hope that you don't qualify Amazon Prime and that you can't get Netflix wherever you're at. You're that much of a horrible person. And I'm just trying to play it lightly because I'm trying to be nice, because I'm trying to enjoy my time with Strand today, but it's like fuck it.
Speaker 2:See, and that's where I always try to think of it too, as a quarter You've got the double sides. Even though he was horrible, you get just as much knowledge from a horrible person if you proceed correctly with it. I learned what not to do, how not to act, how not to speak to people, how not to treat individuals. You know, I learned a lot off of all of his mistakes Well, his entire, in my opinion, career, but it was so bad.
Speaker 1:It was so bad that even the PLs rallied around him and ultimately there were his undoing Come to find out he had he had pinned on some awards that he did not earn. Yeah, did you know this story, gotcha?
Speaker 2:No, I did not.
Speaker 1:Allow me to tell you the story, the ballad of Timothy Jordan. You see, timothy Jordan was also reclassed infantry. He didn't earn a CIB and he had falsely put on a CIB for all his, all his, all his stuff had a cib on it and it was uh, I won't say, I won't say exactly which one of our um pls I believe it was brantley uh started looking into it and figured out that yeah, you have some, you have some discrepancies in your service record dog. And then that was the final thing that did him in. They figured out that yeah, he was. Uh, I think him and ong were involved in that deep, deep uh search through his records.
Speaker 2:But yeah, oh, those guys so much dude.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's so funny because like we think about like a band of brothers and how everybody coalesced around hating uh sobel and it's just like, wow, like we did the same thing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, but it made us that much tighter, better, stronger.
Speaker 1:Dude, when you were, when you came back from that trip, like what led you to make that decision, or was it ultimately made for you to get out?
Speaker 2:I ended up staying in and I did my entire contract. So after I had gotten back, after Jordan was gone, I got moved into operations. I felt more integral to the team. I took on more than most of the op guys do. Like I said, I was answering the first sergeant's emails, responding for the CO, all the sergeant major taskings, the bub updates, everybody's records, everybody's awards. You know, when you were out processing, I was out processing you handling new in processing, pretty much every single aspect. So I felt important and needed at least.
Speaker 2:And then, just day and today, you know you blink. And all of a sudden a year has passed and I really wanted to be on the line and do my infantry stuff and I actually tried to follow captain rick jones, if you remember him, he took over for Captain Miller. He went to like some helicopter group or something like that and they were slotted to go to Afghanistan.
Speaker 1:And I tried to transfer. Yeah, it's a Pathfinder company, is that? Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:That's what it was, yep. But I ended up getting shot down by Sergeant Major Burzak and First Sergeant True, no Bird, and I was so pissed at them at the time but I didn't know it. But coming down the blotters we were slotted to go to Afghanistan and once I found that out I got to go out. And I didn't get to go out on every mission but I volunteered every single opportunity I had. I tried to throw my chip in with the group. Bird was fucking everybody. One day they had to fill sandbags and they didn't get enough of them filled. So the whole company got called over there and I remember mckelvey saw me over there filling sandbags and he's like what the fuck are you doing over here? Like well, first sergeant said the whole company, I'm part of this company, ain't I? He's like yeah, but you're ops, what shouldn't you be in the talk? Like no, I'm just gonna be the runner.
Speaker 1:I left the other guy in there fuck yeah, man, I didn't know you made it on that deployment. I thought you'd gotten right before. Fuck yeah no, yeah.
Speaker 2:so and that's where I actually turned into a little bit of a fight and I still have a little bit of missed feelings about a couple of guys, but I'm trying to communicate with them and let it down because maybe OPSEC related we got into a big firefight and I put on Facebook oh my God, I'm so excited. Finally, after four years I've got to be an infantryman, I've earned my CIB and a couple of the guys' wives had saw that and they started freaking out with their husbands and stuff. And now, being older, I can see that. But it was just. I've never felt so much joy as I did in that moment when I got to return fire and actually people understand that and it's um bro, we've all been there.
Speaker 1:And if you say you haven't, you're fucking lying. It's bro, you get your gun out as a green beret. You think you're gonna put it on instagram and your team sergeant finds it. Fuck, let me tell you, dog, you're not gonna have a good fucking time. You're not. You're gonna get fucking roasted. You're gonna get fucking clowned by your boys and it's gonna be sad, sad boy hour. It sucks.
Speaker 1:You get excited. You've trained for how long to do this job. You finally get to do something cool. You want to throw it out in the gram and, yeah, you get your pp slap. That should be it, though. You learn, you grow and you adapt. Didn't fucking do that again. I'm not gonna get fucking slammed down by my dick, down by my fucking team. Start or the team don't want to do that shit again. So you don't do it. You got to be able to move forward, be able to have grace. Man, like shit happens. Dude, I intimately know what that feels like and I know how shitty it can feel like when your peers say the fuck are you doing, dog? Like yank you back into the into existence. Like, oh, I did something bad, but you shouldn't have to. You know, carry that on forever, man, it's. It's how many years it was 2012, 2013., yeah, 2012. Yeah, we all make mistakes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 13 years ago.
Speaker 1:It sucks, but people should forgive, people should forget and understand. Like dude, I got excited, man. I've been fucking sitting here in ops for how many fucking get to go out there with you guys? Yeah, I, I hope they can understand, man, it's every young man goes to war and they want to have that moment and when you finally get a chance to have it, and with the world of social media, yeah, wasn't right move, but we can forgive it probably not, yeah yeah, we only live once.
Speaker 1:Damn it yellow, send that selfie to mid firefight.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, I've seen guys get away with worse. But yeah, and then bullshit. And then after, uh, I ended up uh etsing. Shortly thereafter that was my five years. I had to extend a little bit to do that deployment and then I got out, did some nasty girl time. I really yeah yep. So I ended up doing eight years total five with the 82nd and then three with the nasty girls and it was nice the first unit I got to, then three with the nasty girls and it was nice.
Speaker 2:The first unit I got to. They were on the long deployment. I guess it was Minnesota National Guard. They were deployed for 23 months consecutively at the beginning of the war. So these guys really knew their shit. But it was nice because our op tempo was slower as a National Guard. You know, when we were active I only got eight jumps in the whole time in my five years in the 82nd airborne five at airborne school, one when I got to the unit, one when we got back from iraq and a toy dropped technically the day after I got out of the army. What?
Speaker 1:yeah, dog, we were jumping. We were jumping every other fucking week it's miserable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but when I got there, though, you know I got there. We're in the field, we go to JRTC, we go to Iraq, we get back. We go on to leave. So it was just, we never had downtime. You know, even when I took over ops, I was like, okay, well, you're a times three, so you have to jump.
Speaker 1:I'm taking you off. Whatever detail you're prioritizing, it hurts placing you because, yeah, exactly I, I will never, no, I can't say never. I would suck fucking golf ball through a garden hose to get a jump into normandy. After watching that, I was just there. That was fucking awesome. But yeah, the sag line in aiken at least was not fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no. So and that brings me to you know, what I've tried to do is reconnect with some of the guys and open up a network and everything the awesome thing, like we're talking about Elgop. On Father's Day night I started sending out just a shotgun blast to old phone numbers that I had Yours was one of them and by what Father's Day was Sunday by Tuesday afternoon I sent 34 text messages out. I had 35 people responding. Somebody else had contacted somebody else who I didn't even have their number and was calling to check on me because it was just a hey, I don't know if this number is still good, I'm just reaching out and they're like well, you know what's going on, let me know. Know what's going on and to try to bring some of that back. Everybody's got different experiences, skills and everything else. I can actually get you a really into normandy I.
Speaker 2:I jumped into normandy in the 81st anniversary, the 80th anniversary, no 80th, 79th, 20th, 75th. I've jumped into mount douce, saint michelle, off that, okay yeah. So I'll send you a couple photos. I'm in one of the chutes, jumping out over that castle.
Speaker 1:How do we get to jump together? And how do I do it keeping my long hair? Because I'm not cutting this shit for anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the great thing is there's a really good community out there called Round Canopy Parachute Team. They've got 12 chapters across the world and I think we have a second chapter. We're working in the United States on the West Coast, but they're down in Palatka, florida. They take all persons. Most of us are all military type people, but there are a few people like Dick Winters, the Band of Brothers guy. His nephew is on our team. He never served, but he was like hey, you know, I want to do this because I want to honor Exactly Yep, but it's a really really tight group and core people.
Speaker 2:I found out about it in 2018 when I was over in the Netherlands. I watched some guys jumping. It was Doc Wilson's his name. He was a special operator medical. He has a history. Supposedly, if you say his name, everybody knows it and, sure enough, a lot of the guys that are out you say his name, they're like, oh fuck, yeah, doc Wilson, we know him. But he was walking off the DZ. He's got his aviator kickbag in his reserve and I'm like, hey, what unit are you with? You're a little bit old, aren't you? He's like yeah, I am a little bit old. I'm like 73 years old, are you not retired? He's like I'm a civilian now. Here's our business card. You should join and jump with us and we all do it as a remembrance in everything esprit de corps, love of it, remember heritage, history, everything else, but everybody. There's so many avenues, there's so many different things. I didn't know about your show. I listened to one episode. It was a guy talking about AI.
Speaker 1:Yeah, josh Otero, shout out to you.
Speaker 2:Super interesting. Yeah, it was super interesting. I'm like this has really good potential and it would be great to see how this could develop. But I didn't know about that. You knew about that. But by us reconnecting I'm able to gain that knowledge. You know, I have knowledge of jumping still. You know jumping around parachutes. We jump conneaut, uh wings over michigan, thunder or something. A whole bunch of different stuff. But now that you and I have reconnected, I've given you one more tool that you can holy shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fucking badass man, dude, are you? Uh? Are you also free fall rated?
Speaker 2:I am not. I started it back in 2020 and. Covid knocked it down and then I started it again in 2022. And me and Larkin were no, I don't think Larkin was running with me. I was running a marathon because I decided that that was going to be a good idea.
Speaker 1:Are you into endurance running?
Speaker 2:I am yes.
Speaker 1:Well, allow me to pitch to you the Security Halt Misogi Challenge, three endurance events throughout the year, all so that we can focus our perspective on the greatness we have in life Because, as you can remember intimately, there's nothing greater than doing something horrible and looking back on it and saying, wow, no matter how shitty today is, I just got done doing this really shitty event. Doing hard things gave us perspective as infantrymen, as special operators, as guys in the military.
Speaker 2:And one thing and it puts life into perspective. If you hit a hard speed bump, you're like. I know I can do this.
Speaker 1:Yes, the other thing is, I realized, as veterans, we all fall victim to couch syndrome, and what better thing to do than to train and have something on the calendar to look forward to? So a shameless plug. If you're looking to join a team, the first event for the year is going to be it's going to always be the Savage Loop in Destin, Florida. The part of the benefit of being part of our Misogi Challenge is you don't have to cover up the entrance fee all by yourself. We're going to help you cover that fee and you get to hang out with some cool dudes. No big deal. We did the first one three of us and we're looking to build a team, Starting out hoping to get six dudes. Wanna be surrounded with hard men, Hard, hard men, so hard they can't get soft. Wait, sound gay? Not like that, not like that. Just really really strong, hard, endurance freaks Oiled up muscular.
Speaker 2:Even the bear said. Even the bear said man the bear.
Speaker 1:What a fucking loser. But yeah, dude, we gotta talk some more because I gotta get you on this team. Man, we had, uh, we had some good, good, awesome times last event. But uh, like I said, florida would be the first event. The memorial day weekend, they continue doing it. Uh, the benavides ultra in fort campbell, kentucky, because you get a sweet belt buckle and who doesn't want to collect belt buckles and, right now, soft 10 plated? My good friend, liam cogan shout out to you. He's got an event that he's putting on out in nevada area. This one's kind of fucking baller. It's running I think it's 200 miles. This one's gonna be like insane. He's doing it here in a couple weeks. He'll test it out. Maybe we'll do that in a couple years, but we'll see how this first one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's mountain elevation gains and shit. We'll let him buff it out. Liam, do this first one, we'll see how it goes. That's a bit more than I can chew, but I can definitely promise you two for next year and we're still trying to figure out that third one. Just have to see if to do it. But Liam, he's a fucking beast. He's a fucking beast. And yeah, shout out to you guys, he's coming back on the show so we can promote it. But what else are you up to these days, strand? What?
Speaker 2:was your transition like? Transition was pretty good. I've been with the Brown Delivery Company for quite a few years. They actually treat me worse than the insurgents that we fought in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1:I'm going to blur it from your uniform.
Speaker 2:Don't worry. Yeah, no, I thought I had it covered up, it'll be blurred.
Speaker 1:How did you?
Speaker 2:find yourself.
Speaker 1:I've heard from a lot of people that go this route that there's really good benefits, really good benefits.
Speaker 2:Money and benefits. I mean the medical I have, and that's where networking and connecting. When I was in the army they were going to med board me, they were going to drop me, I'm a broke dick, so forth, and so on. I'm now running fucking marathons. Me and Larkin are going to be going out to Wyoming to do an elk harvest and just this last weekend I did a-foot elevation road march with 50 pounds of gear for six miles. 41 years old, I don't have time to train. But if you have proper PT, if you have proper attention, if you do things the correct way through science, you can do anything still, no matter how bad something is.
Speaker 1:Pain is going to always be a factor. Pain is going to always be a factor. Just by getting out there and living life, man. That's what people need to understand. Bad something Pain is going to always be a factor. Pain is going to always be a factor. Just by getting out there and living life, man. That's what people need to understand. You don't have to relegate yourself to the couch just because you had injuries. All of us are going to get out of the military.
Speaker 1:If you serve with some sort of coded issue, some sort of disability, don't let that define you. Push yourself, push your limits, heal, be willing to advocate for yourself, to get better treatment modalities, be willing to push yourself to do things. Look, I'm no fucking stranger to pain and conditions or doctors are going to tell you you're not going to be able to walk anymore without pain, you're not going to be able to run again, you're not never going to be able to do any of the things you used to. And then I started saying fuck that, and I got rid of the orthopedic shoes and I started walking and I started pushing myself to go barefoot and next thing you know you're running again. Look, lower back pain, upper back pain, fused neck, whatever you got, challenge yourself to get outside and reconnect man. That's oftentimes one of the best things you can do to stay connected with your friends, with your families, and get out there and start living again.
Speaker 1:Man, before we go, brent, tell us about your efforts to, kind of like, get our BCO family together. What were you going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in 2020, people with no Sarn first class Cromartie, I had connected with him a little bit, but we all get busy with our lives. You know, I saw on Facebook he's a mile away from my house hey, we should get together, and we just never pulled the trigger on it. And unfortunately, it eats at me a little bit because it feels like if I would have put just a little bit more effort or just showing up, maybe I could have helped in his moment of need and prevented you know what he ended up choosing to do. But with that event, his longtime partner at the time, heather, she was doing a 50th birthday for him and I connected with her through Facebook media, social media, all of those apps, ai stuff it's great, but it only works if you use it. And he reached out to me and she's like, hey, could you get a couple of the guys together? And it was me, bradley, hitchens, nagy and Larkin and we got together and I was even going through a rough point at that time in my life At least. I sought out some help, some therapy and everything else and everything started to get a little bit better at that point in time. But in that weekend that we were together. There was no problems, like everything, all of the demons that I had following me, all the dark thoughts, all the suicidal ideations, everything was just gone and it was just. It was so liberating and so great. And that's where me and one of the other guys you know he was struggling with his own demons as well and he's like you know it would be great if we got together, not just when people passed, but what if we just got together occasionally all the time and we got a BCO get together?
Speaker 2:I hosted last year was our first year after Cromartie. We're doing it again this weekend or in a few weekends, august 8th weekend. Right now we've got about a dozen and a half or so guys. Super simple, super basic. You know guys are flying out. If they drive up, I pick them up from the airport. They're not far from my place.
Speaker 2:Keep it inexpensive. We go to Sam's Club and just pick up burgers and patties and eggs and bacon. We just sit and shoot the shit at my house. Do some type of small, inexpensive bonding event. Last year we went clay pigeon shooting, some skeet shooting. This year we're going to float down the river and just reminisce and talk and it's nice because everybody has a different perspective. I didn't know about this new ultra marathon stuff that was going on, but by us reconnecting, I now have another goal and something that I can look forward to, and it doesn't just have to be hanging out at my place. Larkin and Milligan got together over a hunt, just reconnect and throw it out there. Hey, I'm going to be doing this at this point in time. Maybe someone lives nearby.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. That's the type of initiative that we all need to take. If you're a BCO 2504 alumni from the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, or going into 2013, 2014,. Hit up Strand. His contact information will be in the episode description. Throw me the email, I'll put it on there. Or if you want to let the viewers know what it is, no problem.
Speaker 2:My email is the same one that I've had since I was a kid old man, so brando B-R-A-N-D-O, underscore 1-4-0-0, at hotmailcom. Otherwise, on Facebook, I think my link is brandonstrandfi.
Speaker 1:I'll put all those links in the episode description. Feel free to connect. And even if you're not a BCO individual and you just want to get with some veterans and hang out, fuck it, let's ball, let's connect. Let me tell you something we all need human connection and we all need to find our tribe. So, come on, let's all hang out. Let's keep it respectful, please, let's. Let's be mindful of people's situations. Let's not go crazy this weekend coming up, let's have some fun. Let's keep it PG, all right, we don't have to get crazy. We don't have to party Like we used to party at Patty's or Charlie.
Speaker 2:Mike's, I'm not 24 anymore, 41. I need a couple of bottles of water and some ivy.
Speaker 1:Let's not get too carried away now. All right, brandon, it's been a pleasure getting you on the show. Man, thank you for coming on and for sharing your story. I can't wait to have you back on. Let's talk about what you do, stay healthy and stay active. And yeah, man, it's an absolute pleasure to reconnect. So let's not be strangers. Let's continue this connection and growing this fucking community of brothers. Man, we need to have a signal thread or a telegram thread. I know Everybody has a thread, even our own. Sec def can't get off signal. That's neither here nor there. I'm Denny Caballero. Thank you for joining me, and I'll see you all next time. Till then, take care.
