Security Halt!

Building Brotherhood: The Bunker Bros Mission to Support Veterans

• Deny Caballero • Season 7 • Episode 374

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SPONSORED BY: TITAN SARMS, PRECISION WELLNESS GROUP, and THE SPECIAL FORCES FOUNDATION

 

In this episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero is joined by Burke Cueny of Bunker Bros to explore the intersection of podcasting, peer support, and veteran wellness. They discuss the evolution of podcasting tools like Riverside, the power of social media for nonprofits, and the urgent need to build safe, community-driven spaces for veterans. From law enforcement to military life, they break down the mental health struggles, training gaps, and technological shifts shaping the future of veteran support—culminating in their efforts to launch a peer-to-peer app for lasting impact.

 

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Produced by Security Halt Media

SPEAKER_00:

Secure to have a podcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arm. Head up the episode description and check out Titans Arms today.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, this I think it's like like obviously I was the one who kind of got this ball rolling when it came to like the social media side and the um like the podcasting side. So it was kind of on me to like find the best one. And Riverside was just super easy to go off the rip. Like you didn't need to go through any like training. So I just went in here and I was like, this seems like press this button and it worked. I was like, ah, cool. You just copy the link. Oh, done. Sweet.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. All it asks you to do is go to utilize Google Chrome. I will tell you, I slept on one. I started, I was getting paid to produce other shows, and I was using Discord.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I was using Craig, the chat bot.

SPEAKER_02:

So Craig's actually super like user-friendly in general, though. Yeah. Discord's got their share. It was made by gamers. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Shout out to you, Craig, you beautiful little bot. Um it even had audio where you could say, hey, uh, Craig, start recording. And he started recording. He did the, I mean, we did that for like almost two years before I was like, okay, I'm tired of dealing with Craig's bullshit because every once in a while something would happen. Um, but yeah, it's it's uh that's one that I always tell people, like, hey, if you really don't have any money and you want to start right now and you're already familiar with the interface, start with Discord. Super cheap. And then you can have like we had it really professionally built out. Um, shout out to you, Greg. You you built it out. But we had a waiting room lobby and just had had it, we're able people could jump in and just wait and hang out and then drop them into the show, start recording, and then they could kick around, stand by or and hang on for the next session. So it really worked out. It's um really I would recommend that one before um a few of these uh different podcasting. Because as you know, man, like everybody's busy, everybody has things to do. But if you want to have a deep, insightful conversation within an hour remote, go remote. There's no reason why not.

SPEAKER_02:

So easy. I'm not Sean Ryan. I'm not flying people out to come hang out with us. I'm poor dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, we ain't we ain't got that Sean Ryan money now. I'm trying, I'm trying to have some impact, put some positive shit out in the world in about 45 minutes to an hour. That's it. Like maybe someday in a few in a few months, I'll be back down in Florida, get that in studio session back up and running. But until then, it is only remote. And I think I've been doing good. I've been able to grow this thing, doing it remote. I've been doing it for a minute now. I think audio, um, people are always gonna say they're like, oh no, you need video. So I would say if you're just starting out, master one, master your audio or or go dive into the video editing software, but you gotta master one. Figure out which one you really love the most. I fell in love with the audio side. So like my YouTube didn't start fucking doing shit. I didn't do shit with YouTube for a while. It's because I was so stuck on like refining and learning the editing process on audio. But man, like for uh guys like us in the in the trenches, in the deep, you gotta figure out where you're good at and stick to that, man.

SPEAKER_02:

Let's be honest, man. Who has the time to sit down and watch an hour video? Like, I I got an hour podcast, you know. I'll listen to it when I'm working out or something, but I'm not gonna like sit there and watch the video. I don't I don't have that time. I'm not one of those people that lays in bed and watches YouTube. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

There's only there's only one that I like, and I I find myself no longer like working out to like thrash metal or hip hop. Like I'll put on, and here's my guilty thing. I like Papa Meat's channel, I like the crazy stories, I like his mannerisms, I'll I'll listen to that and laugh. I look like the crazy asshole just laughing his ass off while I'm working out. It's entertaining, man. Um, that or you know, fucking the old, reliable Joe Rogan.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Honestly, oh Joe, so god, I can't remember what podcast it was, but it was a podcast talking about his podcast, which I think we're getting in the twilight zone here with podcasts, because now that's where everything comes from, right? But they were talking about Joe Rogan's podcast, so like, yeah, I think Joe Rogan's just like a guy that doesn't really have any of his own opinions, he just wants to learn them from other people. So he'll like bring someone on and be like, oh, the NASA mission was faked. And then Joe's like, sounds good. And then someone else will come on and be like, the NASA mission totally wasn't faked, and then Joe will be like, but this guy said the NASA mission was faked. So you have to prove to me it's not. So then they'll have a debate over and they'll bring both of them on later and they'll debate about it. I was like, he just creates his own drama, and I think like that's why he's so successful. He just he doesn't care who the person is. He's like, Oh, dude, you worked at Area 51. Fuck it. Come on the show. Yeah, dude, it's the guy's been homeless for 40 years, fuck it. Come on the show, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's do it. Yeah, and it's funny, like one of the one of the top podcasts, and I think I think it's within the top 25, is uh one of Joe Rogan's like uh clip shows where where a guy breaks down the Joe Rogan podcast.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just listen to Joe. That's how you know we'll make it if somebody's doing a breakdown of one of our episodes. No, there's there's that. Fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'll just make one of my guys do it. I'll just have a guy.

SPEAKER_00:

Berg. Welcome to Security Podcast. How's it going, man?

SPEAKER_02:

Pretty good. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, man. I uh I love running into new nonprofits uh individuals that are in the fight to uh help individuals such as veterans, first responders, and our service members, man. Uh it's a demographic that needs support and needs help. So today I want to explore everything about uh bunker bros. Tell me everything, man, and let's start off with you. Give me a little background uh who this individual is.

SPEAKER_02:

So I am one of three founders of the Bunker Bros. And um further back, I joined the Michigan Army National Guard in college. I went to Central Michigan University, I joined the Guard. Uh college wasn't really for me, you know, as many people in our line of work kind of realize. Uh I deployed to Iraq in my third year, my junior year, I got deployed out of college. Never back. Um, so I did a deployment uh during the third invasion-ish of Iraq, you know, the whole Missoula thing when ISIS steamrolled the country in like a week and a half. And uh so I came back to the States and I picked up a job working for Counter-Drug, the Michigan Counter-Drug Program, which is a Title 32 non-federal full-time orders. Um each each state has its program, best kept secret in the military, like full-time army benefits, you know. You don't have to uh you don't have to go to you know Fort Benning every day or you know Fort Stewart, drive into work and go through the gates. Like you work through like you're attached to a Homeland Security office or a uh state police office, and you just kind of you know, liaison, you do work for them.

SPEAKER_00:

Um that's badass.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so I did that for a while. Uh I got into contracting. I I kind of uh went to Arizona and I did some contract work for the drug enforcement investigation in Sonora and the Sisabe corridor in Mexico. And uh that was it was more of an Intel side. I did I did interviews kind of like this uh with cartel and and stuff like that. It is information gathering for the most part, intelligence um work. Uh after that, I was kind of kind of sick of that, went through divorce, did Afghanistan, uh, once again contracting. Uh so I worked for Constellus in Afghanistan during the fall, up until the fall, uh I got out right before that Abbey Gate thing went down. Um and then I came back to the state of Michigan, got back into counter drug, did a couple more, I did another deployment with the Michigan Army National Guard as an infantryman. Um, and you know, been a platoon sergeant with the with the guard ever since doing counter drug on the side. And uh that's where where this kind of started. Um, our last deployment to Syria in 2022, 2023. Uh, we were getting hit all the time by uh the not Iran Iran proxy forces.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So we're getting, you know, 107s and 220s and cluster bombs and all that fun stuff, because you know, they want to feel big and tough in the desert or whatever. Uh so we spent a lot of time in bunkers. And we would uh, you know, joke, bullshit, as everyone does in a bunker and a deployment that you have nothing else to do, you know, that dark humor that everyone has.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And one of the guys, uh, Matt and Eli, the other two that work with me, uh, this guy goes, Hey guys, we spent a lot of time in here. We're kind of like bunker bros, and everyone kind of laughed. You know, Eli's like, you know what? I like that, you know, let's let's make something out of it. So we started kind of come up with um like how to give back to the community. What do we what are we gonna do? So we're like, oh, we can sell the unit merch, we can do t-shirts, we can do stuff like that, and you know, give give parts of the proceeds to nonprofits of our choice. And we kind of took it a step further um last year. We were like, okay, well, we need a bigger goal. Like, we need our goal to be something um that's that's gonna impact more people than maybe just these unit t-shirts do. So Eli has some experience with an app they built. Um I'm terrible because I can't remember the name of it. But that's all right.

SPEAKER_00:

This episode is brought to you by TBI. TBI! Fuck I remember.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Uh but it has like uh breach point, a barrel point, or something like that. But um, so it's it's kind of like what we're building, but it wasn't refined as well, and it was built by a lot more civilian aspect, and it wasn't really uh like veteran driven and veteran focused. So it had some flaws, and they they chose a developer who who kind of took some shortcuts and didn't really know what they were doing. So it kind of fell through at SHOT Show um back in the early 2020s or 2019-ish. Um so they they kind of just fell by the wayside, funding stopped, they got it launched, but it just it the developer was just terrible, so it just sank immediately. Um so we're doing everything. We like we learned the lessons from that, and now it's it's completely driven by vets and active duty for vets and active duty. It was exclusive to vets and active duty. So the app is being developed right now by like one dude. And this dude is just yeah, he's our rain man, dude. Like he he is, you know, in there typing away in California, just ripping through it. Danny, you're God. Uh, we all know. But um, so we we finally got him some help. We got some volunteers, which is the issue for us, is like we're just a poor nonprofit veteran company that you know this is taking more time than our actual jobs now. Um so funding is our issue, and we hope to launch at SHOT Show of 2026. So getting close, but um obviously we just started our Kickstarter, we have donations on our website, and obviously the podcast kind of came about as a way to reach everybody in this digital age that I didn't know anything about podcasts until I started this, and now I do one every week, so here we are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's a great tool for marketing, and I always tell clients and anybody looking to start up, like when you don't have money for advertising and marketing, you need to be shit hot on social media. And it fucking irks me when I see nonprofits that don't understand the space and don't see the power behind it and shit on it. I'm like, dude, you don't do you don't do the conventional thing, which is you're going out, raising awareness, doing events, doing tournaments, doing whatever you can to raise awareness and raise funds, but you're sitting here turning your nose up to non to to marketing through social media, to amplifying yourself on social media. Like, don't shit on and it's always the older people, like don't shit on something that could provide you with resources, with with friggin' uh generate income and connections.

SPEAKER_02:

Now you're not gonna make it, man. Like if you're not on social media these days, you're not gonna Toys R Us didn't have a website, didn't think they needed it. They had Amazon, they had Amazon.

SPEAKER_00:

Amazon dick them down.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but Toys R Us thought, you know, hey, we don't need it. It's you know, everyone, yeah, everyone thinks payphones are gonna be around forever. Everyone thinks, you know, the typewriter was the next best thing. But Toys R Us, like I was reading about this again today because it always breaks my heart because I was a Toys R Us kid growing up. I got all my Legos at Toys R Us, you know what I'm saying? And the giraffe kind of freaked me out, but hey, Legos. And uh the guy in the van that used to drop off my Legos every Sunday morning, he would uh, you know, we talk about current events and he'd talk about Amazon. And I was like, man, it's kind of weird. Everyone has a website, these this website thing now. Everyone's on Google and Ask Jeeves, right? When Ask Jeeves was Google. Um, and then you know, Toys R Us was like, nah, we have Amazon. Yeah, well, Amazon didn't want you. Yeah. Well they were exploiting you for data. They were exploit, they were exploiting you for data.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they were gonna use you, and it was like, yeah, well, we're of course we're in breach of contract, but uh we'll pay you nickel.

SPEAKER_02:

We also have billions of dollars. Yeah, and we will fight you into the ground. Yeah. If anyone doesn't know that story who's listening, you need to check it out. It's wild, especially if you're a Toys R S kid, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, man. It's a great, it's a it's a great experiment to understand that like everybody that offers you a hand isn't necessarily looking out for your best interest. It's it's um and that's an important lesson in a nonprofit world. Like understand and and there's nothing worse than a nonprofit that is too arrogant to realize that they need help, then they that they need assistance. And I I deal with that. I deal with that. Um, I see it, and I'm like, dude, like you have a you have a thousand and eighty followers, you post static images every other week, no clear figuring understanding of a content calendar, no understanding of developing a campaign, speaking to an audience and trying to grow support, like you're not gonna get anywhere. And when you just turn your nose up at somebody that wants to provide you with insight, you're like, okay, like you're gonna fall apart. You have a great mission, you serve a great group of people, but no one's gonna rally around you when your messaging is unclear at best. Um, and that's something that a lot of people still struggle with. Like, and nobody wants to collaborate with bad quality posts. Like, you send me a static image and you want me to collaborate with you. No, absolutely fucking not. It's dog shit. It's fucking MySpace quality at best. Like nothing.

SPEAKER_02:

I know you were a MySpace, carry. Get out of here. You could put you could put music on your on your profile.

SPEAKER_00:

It was cool while it lasting. But yeah, man, it's something that we all have to navigate when we're in this space, and like where you guys are at, like, dude, it's you're still in the fight, you're still growing. Like, um, but there's three of you. Like, how have you guys been able to like adapt and overcome leading, you know, you have real jobs, real demands. How have you guys been able to grow and advance a nonprofit while still trying to lead normal lives?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you kind of you kind of said it. Um, like we are not that nonprofit that doesn't look for help, dude. Like we started this, we were we were looking for everything in the dark corners of the universe. We were like flashlights out, searching high and low for people to help us out. Because, like I said, I had never done a podcast before. I didn't know how it worked, I didn't know how to stream to every social media platform at once. I didn't know what people liked. Like, I've spent you know three of the last six years overseas with no phone. So like I was like, oh man, I'm I'm young, right? But like I actually don't know what's going on like when it comes to like social media and shit. Like I have no idea. And uh so we they're gonna hate me because I always say this, but I'm the youngest of my founding brothers, so like by like a lot, so getting them on board with things is it would be impossible if they didn't have that open mindset. And fortunately, they're like, we are older and we don't understand social media as probably as well as we should for what we're trying to do, build a social media platform. But we are open to everything, like we are open to figure out we didn't know reels, we didn't know that reels were the way of the future, and now we do reels all the time. So, like, yeah, no, like you said, it's um it is naive to think that you can do this by yourself and not figure out how it went right and wrong for the people before you. Because you know, yeah, David Goggins can run fast, but if he can't show people, like no one's gonna give a shit. You know what I mean? But um luckily my my founding partners are into the future. Even though they live in the past, but they're into the future. They're all for it. Sorry, you lied, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Just have to throw that dig out there.

SPEAKER_02:

They're all the shit. Dude, he invaded, I invented Iraq, he invaded Iraq. Completely different Iraqs. Twenty years apart Iraqs.

SPEAKER_00:

Very different, very different environment.

SPEAKER_02:

Not even the same insurgency, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, not at all, man. Dude, so tell us about your mission, man. What do you guys set out to do? Um, like this is a a very big, very big uh undertaking, trying to connect one of the the most problematic, most troublesome group of individuals.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and I mean I mean that's kind of the point, right? I mean, we've all been there. Um the the idea is a place where you and I can have a conversation like this, or anybody that we have on our podcast can have a conversation like this in a community that everyone understands. Um it's not gonna be the awkward joke at Thanksgiving dinner after you come home from a deployment that your family did not laugh at, and now you just feel weird for the next 10 days. Um, you know, it's it's not that you use a word that no one understands and then you have to explain it and they still don't understand what it means. So they just kind of like nod at you. And you're like, ugh. Um but I mean, I've had those experiences, you've had those experiences, the founders have had those experiences, and we want to help veterans in a place where they're comfortable seeking it. And I think part of the problem in our world is everyone makes them, and this isn't I don't want this to sound like a pity party, but like everyone makes it seem like it's a veteran's fault for having issues because he made the decisions that got him to where he is. That's not entirely wrong. Like, yeah, he joined up and he took he took this undertaking of his life into his own hands, right? And he I no one forced me to join the army, no one forced you. Now I just want a place where those people can feel comfortable being who they are with the problems that they've started to have, and I want them to be overcome it in a place that they feel free to express themselves in whatever manner that is. Now, this isn't gonna be a place where like we're sending like all dick pics and news all over the fucking place, but like like we gotta have some like some type of box, right? Some some left and right limits on this. But uh we wanna be able to put the the best of Instagram and Facebook and create it just for veterans, so you're gonna have to have ID mean to get into the app itself to sign up. Okay, yeah. Yeah, so so we've already done that part. It's done, it works.

SPEAKER_00:

Um This episode is brought to you by Titan SARMs. Head on over to Titansarms.com and buy a stack today. Use my code CD10 to get your first stack. I recommend the Lean Stack 2. Start living your best life. Titan SARMS. No junk, no bullshit, just results.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll see how that works if we get 400,000 people. Who knows? Um and then kind of fix the issue with the resources that we kind of have. So uh if if I were to ask you about a place to look for veterans' resources, you could probably name me 50 sites, right? You could probably so we want to take that a step, we want to take that a step further, and we don't want to just post links, we don't want to just post articles, we we don't want to just have oh, Mill Connect, and then just have a link for Mill Connect. We want an in-depth explanation of what you can do in Mill Connect if you need to find it. If we can't get you there in the app, we want a detailed explanation of how to get you there, you know, and we'll have someone explain it to you. And I think part of the issue is like, especially for new vets, they don't know these resources are out there. So we want to be able to be like, oh, hey, here's a list of topics. What is your issue? Like, what do you what are you trying to fix? Like, oh, I uh I can't sleep. I'm having trouble sleeping. And it's gonna give you a list of places you can get sleepies studies done in your area. Places that take tri-care, places that are like the VA, places that people are gonna understand where you're going to, right? And then it's gonna take it a step further and say, hey, these are the list of places that can help you. What specifically are you looking for? Are you looking for a cure to insomnia insomnia? Are you looking to get out of the military? Are you looking to separate and get a VA benefit you know track going? Like what is your goal? And then this it's gonna give you these roads and paths to get to that end goal. It's not just gonna leave you there with a link. And I wish the VA and Mill Connect were more like that because it's like benefits. You click on benefits, it's like 40 links for benefits. And I'm like, I this does not help me at all. And I just have 40 links, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Um man, that's a lot of data, man. That's a lot of coding. That's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02:

So we're doing it right now, Danny. You know. And then so that the the kind of final part of that, so social media, resources, and then we have like our our community that we kind of infer as the the red flare um aspect. So if I live in Detroit and you live in Detroit or the surrounding area, if I'm in a crisis and I'm having an anxiety attack and it's my first time in an anxiety attack and I don't know what's going on, I can hit my little red flare. It's gonna tell me who's who's up next to me, and it's gonna send out a distress message that people can reach out and be like, hey man, what's going on? I'm in your area, you want to meet up? Do you need something? So it's not gonna be like, hey, random 911 operator, what's going on? It's gonna be like, hey man, I'm a vet. I went through this. Uh do you want to meet up? Do you want to talk about it? I've been there. Um, so we're kind of working through how to verify these these, especially that last part.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Right now, because we can't just like trust random people to go hang out with other random people. At least I wouldn't. But like yeah. So we're gonna have some type of like training that we're gonna put on when you get the app, be like, hey, how to become a provider, you know, basically. But yeah, so those are just kind of the three avenues of approach that we have. Yeah, be careful.

SPEAKER_00:

You can't you can't uh remember, words mean something. You can't throw out provider, you gotta use peer-to-peer support facilitators.

SPEAKER_02:

Peer-to-peer support exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Where is your legal department?

SPEAKER_02:

They need to talk to you right now. Now, this is that's also a guy in California. Hey, it's Rob here. Yeah. Rob doesn't speak English, it makes it very easy.

SPEAKER_00:

I rolled up my eyes. We'll be with him momentarily. No, dude, you um there's a lot. That's a lot. That is a lot. Um especially the uh the connection piece. And I think we we we learn from each other when we're like able to talk about these things. Some I know you guys are still in development. Um one thing I'd like to uh to point out or throw out you guys is uh SAMHSA. Um they do free, and VA has links on where to do this. I can send to you after this, or you can get the free certifications for peer-to-peer support. Um, because we're we're in a shortage of we're in a we're still in the natural crisis for providers. Um, licensed mental health care workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, you name it, like there's a shortage. Uh any specialty that we need more of them. But peer-to-peer support facilitators, um, with just a few certifications that more often than not are free online, you can become a sensor. You can become a crucial link in somebody's uh you know path to care. So I always advocate for it. Um I host them on the website. Uh, I encourage more people to do it. But if you can add that link on the app, that'd be huge because anybody that comes through there, the app pops up, like, hey, be a peer-to-peer support. That's how I like it's one thing that I really love about the fact that our younger veterans are, you know, there's a that double-edged sword situation. Like we want people to connect in real time, but they're so good at Reddit, they're so good at connecting with people on social media. Like, it's one thing, like, like I said, it's a double-edged sword. Because I go on Reddit, I can see some of the worst fucking behavior. If you go to the veteran um subsections, like for retirement medical processes, you will see some awesome advocacy at work, and it's fast. People will reach out and connect people. I've been in there, I've seen people in their worst moments in life, they're figuring they're getting you know, Q and P'd, they're getting put out of the military, and you will see people just responding with links on where to go, how to how to use this, how do you here's where you need to go for this, this, and that. And it's fast within within hours. Um and and that's the type of environment that I I hope we we uh can see you guys create. But for veterans and active duties are also very, very, very negative. We cut each other. We are the first ones to tear each other down. How do how do you guys go about war gaming that aspect of it? So it doesn't just turn into a bro echo chamber that's just destroying individuals who aren't from the combat MOS or aren't from this tribe. That's the thing that I find like fuck, like, how do we ensure we keep it positive?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so that was my one of my original concerns was uh exactly what you just said. Um, everyone that built this app who is currently working on it is combat arms. So that I think we have a bias that we haven't really been able to successfully address yet. Like, so so what happens, and I don't think any of our guys would do this, but if uh like if you have we don't want to have clicks start to develop within the app itself, right? So we don't want the 11 Bravos to only help the 11 Bravos and 18 series only help the 18 series, and um, you know, all of a sudden all your support dudes, your 88 mics and your 42 alphas and your 92 Yankees are just out in the wind, right? Those dudes also have seen some shit, done some shit, been away from their families. Um, you know, uh so we want to build this community basis um where you can create a community for, like I said before, Detroit, right? So like if you want to create a community like, oh, this is my community in Detroit, uh, we meet every Tuesday to talk about stuff. Uh I guess you have to prove you live in Detroit, but I think we're kind of up in the air if you have to tell them what you are. Yeah. Like, do we want someone to go to that meeting where it's only 11 series and then there's like one 42? That's like Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's a tough, it's a toss-up, man, because like every like every community in the world, you have good and you have bad. Well no, we have a lot of bad. Like I will say, like you said, like I've seen some some mil influencers just destroy people for no fucking reason. And I've run into it more and more the more we reach out and the more contact we have with people of like a higher status in the social media world. And I've seen some really shitty influencers. Oh my god, yeah. I some of the big ones.

SPEAKER_00:

Big ones. Um But it it's the influent the mill influencer space is toxic. It's toxic. It's super toxic. It can be very one thing I noticed it's nobody wants to reach reach through once they make it to a certain level and help anybody else up. Um which sucks because you would think like, hey, my mission's good, my mission's bad, or my mission's good, I'm not doing anything bad. Somebody will will reach through and help. And what I've seen is um there's a lot of hesitancy once you made it to reach out. I I'll uh I'll tell you the name of this individual once we were done, because again, another well-connected one. But I reached out to bring him onto the show, and he responded back with this really like snarky uh like talking about himself in the in the in the third person. It was just really weird. And I was like, dude, you're the you're the you're the positivity, the mental, you you're you're one of us. You're what you're in the trenches. Oh my God. Came off like complete asshole. Super, super fucking. And I saved the email because every email, if it's a no, I'll save it. Um, especially if it's a polite no. I always tell the story like I I started this thing, and when I first started taking it. Serious, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna reach out to Ice T because he was a veteran and I want to hear his story. I found his connecting email and I sent him an email, and uh he's like, Yeah, no, that's gonna be a no from me dog. And I was like, hey, I got an I got a no from Ice T.

SPEAKER_02:

That's gonna be a no from me, dog. I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, hell yeah, I got a no from Ice T. Like, but you're right, man. Like, there's there's very few that are out there that made it. Um, shout out to Vincent Vargas. Um, that dude, class act, amazing individual.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, we're in contact with him, yeah. He's the yeah, he's a good dude.

SPEAKER_00:

He's a solid dude. Anything I've ever needed. Any, I mean, and I'm he doesn't, I don't I'm fucking nobody. That dude's come to the show several times. Uh he's brought me over to the shows that he's making. And every every time you reach out, the dude's willing to talk. And uh just a class act, dude. So I don't lose hope, but it's like, man, like the more it's more incentive to always keep grinding harder so that when you do penetrate and get to that point where you are significantly impacting and your voice is is listened to, you know, like, hey, keep your shit humble, reach back down and help other people. Because there's good people trying to come up. There's great people with great ideas, great positive influence in their small little echo chamber. And we need to uplift that. Like the problems that we're seeing within the veteran active duty space aren't going away. We now have enough data that we're not what we used to think the problem was were these combat hardened individuals who are taking their lives. These guys that saw a lot of combat were killing themselves and were losing them at a rapid rate. And the reality is, more often than not, we're losing individuals that didn't see the that combat. By and large, we're losing guys and gals that are isolated, that are alone, that are young, that we can still reach, that they're online. They can have access to your app. Maybe we can turn up title in that battle. But like we have to be able to reach and help each other out and elevate these voices that are out there trying to fight for good, man. Like, this is a like I know it's not wasted on you, but this is an incredible undertaking, especially for three dudes who have full-time jobs, family.

SPEAKER_02:

Three guys in a three guys in an underground bunker. There's three naked dudes in a bunker, man.

SPEAKER_00:

It's oddly enough the name of my favorite movie. That's neither here nor there.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, so we talk about the isolation thing a lot, and I think a lot of people kind of miss that part of our conversation. Because yeah, no, you're 100% right. It kind of gets uh like glazed over. Like everyone's like, oh yeah, that that dude never saw you know combat, never had a friend die, never saw him get medavact, never spent time like overseas getting shit on. I think the most sad I've ever been has been before my deployments. Like when I don't feel that sense of community when my friends aren't around, when you know you PCS and you lose like all your friends from the last three to five years are gone and you have to start over again, and you're moving again, like yeah. I think I think the worst I've ever felt has been pre-deployment. I don't think I don't think I've ever felt that bad after deployment. I mean, sometimes, you know, some yeah, sure you have your bad days, but yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

When you're with the boys, you can go through hell, literally go through anything. Like it's when you come back and and you don't have anybody.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's the thing that people aren't keen in on.

SPEAKER_02:

And the deployments, like, if I feel shitty after deployment, I'll reach out to a guy who was there. Yeah. Pick up the phone and I'll text them or I'll call him and be like, hey man, you remember this one thing? And be like, yeah, dude, that shit sucks. I'd be like, Yeah, you're right. Should this suck? But when you're by yourself, man, and and you're just kind of sad for you don't know why, uh, it's hard to reach out. Because it's hard to it's hard to explain that to somebody. You know, me and the guys, like the bunker bros, like we understand that. So like if I'm having a rough time, I'll I'll reach out to Matt. Matt will reach out to me. Even if I can't put it into words, I'd be like, hey man, something's wrong. I don't know what it is, you know. But that's why we started this, right? Like we want, we want a community that is for all veterans, not just the onesies, twosies who are uh, you know, door kicking, headbanging pipe editors. Like we want everybody, and that's the whole point of the community in the in the app, man. Like, we're not gonna be able to do it if we can't get everybody on board.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's true, dude. It it's it's it's important to understand that everybody's service matters. Um all jokes aside, uh all memes aside, at some point you you have to look at that kid that raised his hand and was excited about the job he chose to do. Be able to respect that and honor that. Or got tricked into doing. Yeah, or got tricked into doing, and and was good enough and had enough to, you know, a great enough spirit to say whatever, I'm gonna roll with the punches and do it. Like, yeah, it's I want I'm tired of hearing the same stories, and that's why I always say kill the myth. When people interact with me, and and I I hear the stories. Well, it wasn't as hard as what you did, or it wasn't as cool as what you did. I'm like, dude, don't.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it makes me feel bad, man. Like, I'm like, oh, do you know the Beyond the Barrel podcast?

SPEAKER_00:

Beyond the Barrel. Um, no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_02:

It's a it's a it's a law enforcement podcast, but obviously tons of parallels. They had me on their show probably, I think it just came out November 1st. Yeah, it just came out November 1st, but we recorded like two months ago. Um and he great dude. We ran into each other in uh his name's Kenny. Ran into each other in Indiana, like at a bar. I was down there for a bachelor party, and my brother was on his stomach on the bar doing shots, and this guy was recording, and I walked up to him and I was like, Can I get that video? And he's like, Fuck yeah, dude, he texted from his Instagram, and it was this beyond the barrel thing, and I was like, I have a I have a podcast too, dude. Like we should have each other on. And so we did, and we had a great time. And uh, he was so he's been a cop for like uh like 15 years. Um, he did like interdictions, he was a street cop. Um, so he's kind of like in this weird spot now where he's like teaching interdiction, and which is like finding drugs and cars, basically is his big thing. Um, but he's like, Yeah, man, like I just want to say thank you for your service and like everything you do. And he's like, I I couldn't imagine what you do. I was like, I was like, bro, I work with the police every day. I could never be a cop. Like you guys see the worst of the worst of humankind on our own soil. I do it thousands of miles away, and I come home pretending it didn't happen, or like, you know, it's it's still thousands of miles away. You do that shit down the street from your house, man. Like, don't thank me. Like, thank you, you do you, I'll do me.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, but dude, a hundred and twenty fucking percent, dude. Every day is unemployment. Every day.

SPEAKER_02:

You can't, yeah. You exactly, dude. I was like, how many, how many bodies have you seen? He's like, what do you mean? I was like, in real life, how many dead bodies have you seen? He's like, Oh, too many to count. I was like, I've seen maybe seven or ten, you know, like maybe. He's like, oh wow. I was like, yeah, dude, it it's not what you think it is. It's not like you're this isn't Iwo Jima, dude. Like this is not this is not World War II right now, man. Like the insurgency is different. And my war, my war was, you know, for nine months at a time, thousands of miles away. Your family is here. That is nuts to me, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, I was fortunate enough to meet a really cool dude, uh, New Jersey cop. And um the same way. You know, we were we were supporting a program that takes our um World War II veterans back to to Normandy, and uh Mike and I were talking and and uh he he got vulnerable and shared a story with me, and it was heartbreaking, like very, very painful story of something he had to deal with, traumatizing. Like I'm like, Mike, you don't get it, man. Like you you you are so quick to give honor and reverence to every veteran, but you don't even realize that what you see on a daily basis at work is is by and large probably a lot worse than the vast majority of combat troops uh for the entire GWAP, bro. Like what you just described to me as like not even the worst day, just one of the worst days. Like, bro, like you deserve care, you deserve love and support too. Like it's part of still getting it.

SPEAKER_02:

It's like they don't like people do not look at cops, you know. And I'm not saying people look at the military any any better now. Like it's better than it was in like Vietnam, yeah, yeah. But it is not how it was between 2001 and 2012, you know what I'm saying? People shit on cops like all the time. I feel so bad, man. And yeah, the shit they go through every day, like like I said, at home, uh, it's fucked up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there any is there any thoughts that maybe you know, in the perfect world, you guys launch your app?

SPEAKER_02:

Dude, he asked the same question. He asked the same question, and I was like, I hadn't thought about it till then. And then he is like, he's like, but I can't get in. I was like, fuck. You're right. So I maybe if it if it, you know what, if it works out, I'll I'll find a way, because I think that would be fantastic. Uh so any cops listening, I got you. Uh, but right now, uh Kenny Williams under Red Ninja on Instagram or Beyond the Barrel Podcast has an all cops page on Instagram that you can join. He has like 50,000 people, 50,000 cops in there. Gotta be a cop to join.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so it's called uh This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task. And Dr. Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to Precision Wellness Group.com, enroll, and become a patient today. Trap fine. It's called Trap Fine. I had to look, it's right there.

SPEAKER_02:

But it's called TrapFine. So if you're a cop and you want to go talk to other cops, they talk about traps, they talk about you know finding drugs. Um, you join join him, don't talk to Red Ninja over on Instagram. But the uh the non-infantry conversation going back a little bit. Yeah, I was having this conversation. Um, I teach ROTC at the University of Michigan every Thursday. Oh shit. Yeah, so they they they asked for NCO volunteers because they realize that the officer corps isn't what it should be.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll leave it at that. So they have NCO volunteers, um, and there's like a little screening process, like you're not a piece of shit and you know what you're talking about. Um check the box. Are you a piece of shit? Yeah, man. Do you know what you're talking about? I mean, we said notice of people. Well you have to.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to.

SPEAKER_02:

You have to.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey man, if if you can't explain all the battle drills to me and you're about to go teach this class about battle drills, like sorry, man, you can't do it. You can't fucking like if you don't know the basic soldiering skills and you're about to go teach it to a bunch of cadets, you can't do that.

SPEAKER_00:

I just had Michael, uh Michael Meehan, meehan, me again, Michael Meegan from uh Ranger U. Bro. Insane, insane individual. If you haven't seen his content, he's the same thing. He's working with cadets out of uh Texas AMU. But uh he's the first one that I was able to find that was willing to put that aspect because we need people like you guys. That's how you build the next generation of great officers. It's not officers mentoring officers.

SPEAKER_02:

The problem is CEOs, but our level is so far below what we need to start a program. Being 100% honest, it's not gonna get any better because the Pentagon and above does not give a shit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

They don't care that the program is not working. They're like, well, we're feeling officers, but they don't really understand that the quality of shit. But they're like, we're feeling officers. Uh we had this conversation last Thursday. Uh, one of the kids we were going over nine lines. Um, they were doing React Contact and a Claymore class, and they were doing like a round robin. So I was teaching the nine line, and these kids came off the literally kids, 18 to 22. Yeah. And they come off the React Contact class and they have all like paint all over the paintball. So they like paint all over them and shit. And they're all they're all like bitchy because you're like first probably time getting shot by a paintball, they're all they're all pissy about it. And they come up and I we start going through the nine-line, and then like I realized they have like some of them had notebooks out. Some we handed out a nine-line card, you know, like we'd have it's laminated and shit, so they can have that. And one of them goes, uh, hey sergeant, I just don't understand why I have to know this. I'm going to be a quartermaster. And I was like, Because you're a soldier. Like, this is the basic soldiering task. I was like, not to mention that you're gonna get tested for this in your little summer camp that you have to go through when you're a junior, but someday it may happen, it may never happen. You may be driving from point A to point B on the not even close to the flot, and all of a sudden you're in the middle of an ambush. It happens. It just does, man. Like who that who's that girl that got the silver star in Iraq? She was motor tee, she got ambushed, saved like a bunch of people, ended up killing like 14 fucking Sarah, Sarah something.

SPEAKER_00:

Hang on a second.

SPEAKER_02:

I I know, dude, it was killing me because I I thought of her and I was like, I can't tell that story without knowing her name, but I don't remember her name. But uh I mentioned her. I know, but they were like, oh, uh is that a real story? I was like, yeah, it happens all the fucking time, man. Like, not all the time, but it ha it happens enough to you not to have to have an excuse to not know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They were gonna Monica Brown, Silver Star. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep. Uh they were talking about upgrading it to the metal monitor. Yeah, and it never happened.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And that's that's a that's a great point, man. That's a that that's a great point. Like if you look You never know. Yeah. You never know when you're gonna have to do and you perform basic soldiering tasks, dude. That's that mentality needs to be beaten, brutally, brutally instilled in these young minds. Because that's what gets people killed later on down the road. Um just because they don't remember.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. And it's uh, you know, yeah, well, one, they don't care. Yeah, you're right, they don't care. But two, um, I mean, a lot of it is perishable, like to an extent, you know, after four or five years of never doing it, obviously you're gonna not remember. But uh, dude, that oh my god, I got immediately got worked up. I was I was I was like, God, if you weren't a cadet, I would smoke the shit out of you, dude. Come here. You can't say that shit. Yeah, you can't water source. Come here. I was I was the other, so I was I'm an e6, and this other kid's an e5 teaching this group, and he's like looking at me. He knew he knew it was coming. As soon as the question came up, he like one of those. And I looked at him, I was like, dude, every time someone's gonna ask this question every time? Like hey man, you're you're gonna you're gonna be a PL one day, okay? And the way things are going, how many Russian generals have died? Okay. You think those Russian generals study the Ranger Handbook? Probably not. That's why they're dead. Jesus.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh man. Yeah, dude. It's um it's but it's important to have these these jobs, these professions, like working with these kids, like even the ones that challenge you. Like you're gonna remember this time, and it's gonna be something you look back on, I guarantee it, for the positive uh memories. Because, dude, like I I never valued it. I never wanted to be the guy that left to go to Swick or left to go do a teaching assignment. But then when you get out and you realize like the best years of your life, the best times when you were directly leading and instilling like lessons into young soldiers' minds, like being an actual leader, like mentoring. That's a shit you're gonna remember.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, like oh, there's a payoff. Yeah, don't give me right. So, like one of the guys came back. Uh, I was doing this last year, so it was my second year, and he came back after his uh they they grade them after their junior year, and he placed like fourth in the nation, including West Point. So, like he came up to us uh a couple weeks ago and he's like, Hey guys, I really appreciate you teaching me because people out there did not know, like they didn't know what they were talking about. Unfortunately, the the summer camp that they go to where they get graded is by a bunch of cadre who also don't know. So this cad the cadre is just like like you have like random officers who's frustrating. I know, and they're teaching these cadets wrong. I had cadets come back from that camp and be like, this is how you clear at EPW, and it was not, it was not how you did it. I was like, that's how you die. You hug them. No, dude. Dude, bodies on the bodies on the ground, they walk up and they're like, just like pick them up, and I was like, What about clearing them? They're like, no, they said this is how you do it. I was like, who's they? Who I'll give me their name. I'll go find them. I I have the world system on my laptop, dude. I will fucking find them. I dude, I have this conversation every time. I'm like, hey man, if anyone tells you other than this and it doesn't make sense to you, tell them they're wrong and they can call me about it. Because I will. Like, you can't teach these guys wrong. You just can't. Because now they're gonna teach people wrong.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Now you have three generations of just fucked up cadets, dude. No, they don't care.

SPEAKER_00:

Some fucking peel out there. It's like, all right, we're gonna rehearse uh clearing EPW. I've got this. You gotta hug them.

SPEAKER_02:

You stick your head under the body, head first.

SPEAKER_00:

Search for grenades. You give them a good tight squeeze and you give them a double European kiss.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, dude. It's killing me sometimes though. I know it's I know it's it's gotta be done, but also it's it's literally a volunteer. Like I don't get paid, I'm salary, I'm a soldier, like I don't get paid more. So you know I'm driving 45 minutes to go teach these people, and then they get taught wrong by active duty army.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's just so frustrating, man. And I just want my PLs to stop sucking. The p dude, the the professor the professor of military science, he runs the program, right? He's a major. He's like, So why do you do this? I was like, because he's like, you don't get paid? I was like, no. He's like, you don't get pre-s like no. He's like, then why? I was like, I'm tired of shitty PLs and captains, man. I was like, it's awful. I was like, if I have to go through this much training to be in charge of a squad or a platoon, you should have to be doing way more than you're doing to be in charge. You're in charge of a school right now. Do you feel like you are?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But maybe someday they'll make it through, they'll learn, and then when they need help, they'll be able to turn to your app and get the resources they need.

SPEAKER_02:

That's uh counsel me. The app fucking sucks, by the way. Yeah, it'll be in my counseling.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, do you guys have a name proposed for or are you just gonna go with Bunker Bros app?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh it's the bunker app. So like yeah, so it's the bunker app, and our podcast is from the bunker. So it's super creative. It's repetition.

SPEAKER_00:

It's what the people create.

SPEAKER_02:

It is, you're not gonna forget. You're not. Not even if you have TV, yeah. Yeah, everyone's been there, man. Everyone's been in the bunker. Almost pretty much everybody in the last 20 years, at least.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. At least once. At least maybe had some uh bunker, late night bunker experience.

SPEAKER_02:

Dude, even even yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Even in Kuwait they're getting bombed now. So even those dudes are like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, congrats. Now you now you earned your at least somebody is earning their CIBs or fucking their caps.

SPEAKER_02:

Nero's yeah, sweet, they got a cab. Fuck yeah. Over win free CIBs for everyone. You did it.

SPEAKER_00:

Fucking oh man. Hey, you know what? You earned it, you earned it. Whatever. To fucking throw it in the shadow box, man. Don't fucking make it.

SPEAKER_02:

We had that conversation, too. A lot of people were super pissy about the drones thing. I was like, dude, drones. Bro. If you get smoked by a drone, you get you get a CIB, you get a purple heart, sure, man. You get make a new award, make a a drone combat badge, dude. I don't give a shit. Give him whatever he wants, man. They they got drones like people on fire and shit, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Dude, I saw a drone strike that I don't get squeamish. I don't get squeamish. But this dude is on a quad and gets hit by this drone and gets instantly turned into fucking hamburger meat. Just half his body. I'm just like, you know, we don't need to have enough internet for it today. We don't need why is this available to our kids? Like, why? And the thing that I uh here's my my theory, my theory on it. Like, this all came about because we put it on Call of Duty. Like, I remember drones. It 100% is a hundred percent. Like, I remember playing campaigns and all my deployments, and just like, fuck yeah, I got my drone. Drone drone swarms, that was a thing you got through Call of Duty, all this shit.

SPEAKER_02:

Better to miss a linbound.

SPEAKER_00:

Fuck it. How many times did our our fucking dudes with javelins like just fucking be like, yeah, fuck yeah? It's like Call of Duty, fuck yeah. Like now it's a real thing. We did this, we created this LSC. We did we 100%. Like the stories and the pictures, I'm just like, fuck, this is coming to a battlefield near us. Like, this is the field. It's already here, man.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, like it's already here. Like the guys in when I was in Siri, we were getting hit by FPVs, we're getting hit by it's not, I guess it's not an FPV. FPV is like you fly the whole thing the whole time. The ones that we first got hit by was like you would you put the coordinates as waypoints, and it would like fly to the waypoints. So they weren't as accurate because they didn't know altitude. So they would be like, Oh yeah, there's buildings there, so maybe it's you know ten meters tall, and then the aircraft would like crash too early. So like it wasn't as accurate. It was pretty good, but yeah, yeah. No, it's already like it's already happening, it's already happening to US troops, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, so yeah, I got a drone guy coming on the show um Thursday. That's gonna be fun. Uh Yankee, Yankee, Yankee Tanner Yackley. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, I love him. He's a good dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

It's um we had him on our show a couple weeks ago. Great guy. Wealth of knowledge. I love what he's doing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, people always tend to think that just because you're not directly there, it's not gonna impact you. And um, from fortunate enough, I got friends who who've got family members that you know pilots are flying these things, they're letting letting shit off the rails and they're intimately watching. Everybody's we grew we spent so much time watching Kill Cam. Now imagine if you're watching that nonstop day in, day out, over and over and over. And you're doing it. Yeah, that's you have to join being, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we had a we had a great episode with Tanner. Uh I won't talk about it too much because you gotta you gotta ask him your own questions. But no, great dude, wealth and knowledge, he's got the remote warrior LLC. Yeah, and I personally had not thought about until I saw his page, and I was like, man, this dude was playing Call of Duty for fucking 20 years with a Reaper. Like that is nuts to me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, clocking out, clocking in in a fucking out of a trailer in the United States and driving home, and like it's gonna affect you. And you're taking that shit, like yeah, it's a it's a crazy world, man. We need more ingenuity and more guys like yourself, you and your team trying to develop these apps, but it it's it's such an such a big fucking have you guys game war game it to figure out like what if we've got to scale it down? What if we just need to like bare bones how will we launch and then like strategize for a point, you know, a version 2.0. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So we have the we have a um like basically a task list for what it needs to be done for it to release at all. Yeah, yeah. Um so we we kind of prioritize the community part of it. Uh red flare can be like a later release since we're not really 100% sure how we're gonna do that safely yet.

SPEAKER_00:

Um good, good. I'm fucking so glad you said that.

SPEAKER_02:

Um there's yeah, no, we're not just gonna send your address to like a fucking hit squad to come down.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there's so many there's I'll I'll talk I'll tell you offline. Um that is just such a complex problem, such a complex situation. Um, but I'm so glad you guys are treating it like the complex situation and pro problem set it is, because there are people out there that aren't. They're yeah, that's all I'm gonna say. I'll tell you more offline. But uh it it really is it it's it's such it demands a thorough, like I'm gonna I'm in a freaking um part of a freaking small community think tank for AI uh for mental health, and and that was my first glance at a true like friggin' committee of people that really know what the fuck they're talking about with people with like impressive backgrounds, and even like that's the thing where I'm like, okay, if these people are throttling and going methodically through the problem sets, then fucking boner McFucking Thunderfuck over there and his crew of retards should probably not be telling the world that they're gonna launch an app that can immediately connect a thousand veterans, world or like to to everybody and every fucking provider that they can get them connected to. Like, that's a very, very intricate problem set, and you can't be promising this to people. I think it's criminal. There's some people out there doing this shit.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, the safety is the number safety and security is our number one concern, number one and two concern. So obviously IDME was a first step, right? So IDME stops most of that rough the rip. Like, so if you don't belong in the community, you are automatically not in the community. The second thing is uh encryption. So we had to we're toying with our own end and encryption that cannot leave the site. So we don't want you to be able to take things off our app to take anywhere. To us, that just does not seem like a good idea. Like if you have veterans talking about their problems, we don't want that leaving. We don't want that to be able to be shared on fucking Facebook. Like all of a sudden you get a beef with Craig from down the road and you want to like pull that shit out of the app. No. So it's gotta be safe. We're having a conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

One thing is we can do the the old um Snapchat fixes where it automatically tells you. Or two, we can block it. So you can block screenshots if you're a developer. If it senses that a screenshot is being initiated by the phone, it will automatically block the screen. So we can do that, but it's kind of we're we're still toying with it, which is why like we're not gonna release that right away. So our our main thing is the community, the the option to connect with veterans and resources, and you know, if if you guys want to meet at a Denny's in your hometown, you can do that, but we're not gonna blast your fucking info for other people, right? Um, so yeah, we obviously take uh our friends and everyone's security extremely seriously, but no, that was our main concern. And Danny is our our voice in the heavens, you'll hear me say it a thousand times. That guy he's he's a Project Rubicon cat, and he's extremely shit. Yeah, he's extremely gifted uh when it comes to developing apps and security. And sometimes he talks in a way that I don't understand, but I trust him. So

SPEAKER_00:

He speaks Mandarin Chinese and uh he's stationed in Beijing. Oh shit, you've been honey dicked.

SPEAKER_02:

But no, he's he he voiced these concerns before he would let us start. Um and yeah, so we're workshopping as we go, and if it's not ready and it's not safe, it won't be released.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, man. Good on you for having that. And you're targeting for SHOT Show of 2026? Correct, yeah. So we yeah, we are running out of chat.

SPEAKER_02:

So why specifically SHOT Show? We think other than another veteran uh release that got canceled this year, and also the next one's in Tokyo, so it's like vet vet uh vetcon. I think it's called Vetcon. But yeah, last year it was in like California, and this year they're not doing it, and next year it's in Tokyo, and I was like, I don't think we'd swing Tokyo. So but other than that, I think this is kind of like the biggest networking of vets that we could possibly find. And if we don't heard of the MIC.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I don't know what's the stand for Military Influence Conference, but not influencer like social media influencer.

SPEAKER_02:

I've I've heard of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Entrepreneur and business leading, um, which could be really beneficial for more than one way, exposure, but potential backers and supporters. Um I didn't go to um I missed these past two years just because production and work, but uh next year I'm putting it on my my to-do. But there's also uh M uh MCO with um that one's uh I think that was in Vegas this year, and it might be in Vegas again. Um I think you're right.

SPEAKER_02:

I think that one is in Vegas this year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That was a good one. Uh real good place. A lot of good people on both of those, but just throwing it out there. Just friggin' because it's it oftentimes, man, so much gets kind of like left on the back burner with friggin' Shot Show if it isn't like a new and cool guy, friggin' weapon system, and there's so much shit coming out this year.

SPEAKER_02:

That's all only Yeah, we we want the reach of SHOT Show because SHOT Show has the highest visibility, obviously. Um But we have to get the funding there first anyway. So I mean if we don't Danny can't work for free forever. So if we don't we don't start paying Danny, we're gonna run into probably an issue of losing Danny to someone better. Um so we're we're kind of in this stalemate where we have exactly what we need laid out, but we need the funding to do it. Yeah. Um, so getting more developers are number one, beta testers number two, beta testers are free. You know, we just get a bunch of you know veterans on social media to download our app for a week and beta test, but um developers is something different. We have one volunteer developer and we just got another one, but we need the money to have those host sites, as I understand it, be able to do what we want it to do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Well shit, man. Let's um once we wrap this up, let's let's stay in touch and um let's brainstorm how we can uh you know support each other. Because I I think that there's um there's some fundraising opportunities that we can do. There's um there's a lot that we can rally around, and this is something that's needed, man. Um we can't assume that every veteran's ready to get on a uh you know a provider's couch and be ready to open up. Yeah. But I'm not. Yeah. And it's difficult. Um I advocate for every everything. It's uh the only reason why I'm here is because I found vulnerability. I was willing to go to a mental health treatment center, I was willing to talk to licensed mental health professional, and I was willing to do all the therapies and modalities that finally got presented in my way. But there was a period in time where I wasn't. I wasn't willing to try mindfulness, I wasn't willing to do meditation, I wasn't willing to tell the truth to a provider, and I lied, schemed, dug in my heels, and uh led me down a dark road. Uh I am here today because a lot of providers poured their love and care and gave me the resources I needed. But ultimately, the one thing that changed is I made a choice. So, for those that aren't ready, I think this app is perfect because at least it connects you with everybody else. And one thing I've always shared with people is when I was at my worst, the one thing that kept me going were memes and my LGOP. My little group of paratroopers, my friends that I could connect with. And if we can just do that through an app, like Bunker Bros app, um maybe we can keep more of our brothers and sisters around for a little bit longer and then inspire them to take their own walk towards a better mental health journey and get connected to a provider. I think that's what we need. Um, instead of wishing, hoping, and praying, we got to start rallying around this. And unfortunately, it means that you're gonna have to dig deep into your own pockets or your mom's pocket and uh donate. So we got to figure out how we can help you guys and uh get this going, man. Um, it's been a pleasure getting connect with you, man. I hope that we can continue collaborating in the future because I I really want to see you guys succeed on this. If people want to connect with you, where can they go?

SPEAKER_02:

So obviously, best place is our website, bunker bros.com. Um, we monitor everything, and we're not like those dick social media influencers that aren't gonna message you back. If you just want to talk to us, I'm here to talk. Um and so are the guys. So hit us up on our Instagram, shoot us the email, all our email and information is on our website. Um, the real bunker bros for uh Instagram and bunker bros for Facebook, bunker bros.com for the website, and then we just did our Kickstarter. So um, if I don't know if if anyone knows how Kickstarter works, I didn't until last week. So if you want$20,000, you have to raise$20,000 or you get zero dollars. So we have like$2,500 out of like our$20,000 goal. So go to our Kickstarter uh links in our everything.

SPEAKER_00:

So do me a favor, pause right now, go to the episode description. You know the fucking field. The episode's over anyway. I'm just gonna do my wrap up. Hit the links there, support bunker bros and help them carry out their mission and complete this fucking app, which we need. We need more veteran ingenuity. Um I can't say it enough, man. We've got to support our veterans out there that are willing to get in the fight and do something. A lot of us aren't. Maybe we can't. Maybe we're stuck taking care of our family and focusing on our one mission, which is providing for our loved ones and try to make another day. But for the individuals in the fight, the ones that are getting involved, rolling up their sleeps and the sleeves, and figuring out how to fucking save our guys and gals, we need to support them. Uh so if you can donate anything, anything at all, it'll help. Uh, it's a long way to 20, so just share it. Uh get on social media, share it on Instagram, go here, click the links. I don't care how you do it, just be willing to support this campaign. Uh, again, thank you for being here, brother. Once again, where can they go to see you?

SPEAKER_02:

Bunkerbros.com or at the real bunker bros. Oh shit, I totally forgot. We have one more thing. I'm sorry, one more thing that we're doing right now. So we have a collab going right now with Cross Rifle Gospel, who is a um ranger and some other special operations guys who are kind of like all over the place. But right now we have a collab. If you or your friends have any individual that you believe goes above and beyond to help the veteran community or teach the younger generations on how to be better troops, better soldiers, better Marines, whatever, have them DM us, shoot us an email with a write-up of this person, and we'll send them a coin for free. We made 25 coins. Yep, it's a real cool coin. I don't have any around me, but it's a real cool coin. Uh, it's collab. There's only 25 of them made. We sent out about five or six right now. Shoot it to us. We'll send them out to them uh with a write-up and a little certificate. Uh, just something that we want to build the community, recognize some people who are going above and beyond, help the veterans.

SPEAKER_00:

Hell yeah. There you go. I'll get the link from them and we'll put it in the friggin' episode description. Thank you all for tuning in. It's been a pleasure. Super late. I'm gonna go to sleep, and I'm gonna process this later. In future, Denny will thank me for doing a great job. See you guys later. Take care. Thanks, Denny. SecureDob Podcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arm. Head up the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today.

Head Shot

Deny Caballero

Host