Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the ones ready podcast. You're in the team room. It's just me today, but I do have a special guest.

I mean, I really appreciate you joining us. We have retired command chief will mark them. Well, you've been well, you're retired now, but you were a comeback controller for a good 30 years, right?

No, not quite. I was I was in for 30 years, but I was a comic controller for just about 25. I got cross train from being a security forces and I just want to do, you know, even even better stuff for our nation.

And so got out of the copper field and came into comic control.

Just a cool 25 years, no big deal, you know, nothing, no, don't worry about it. But that's not actually why we have you on today because there's, I mean, we can we can talk about

as much as one or aspect war, but I, you know, we were we were talking beforehand. You know, and we've said it in previous podcasts like, hey, you can't rest on your laurels.

You can't worry about what you did in the past. It's about what you do today and in the future. And and you're kind of embodying that really you and log as several of the other foundations, associations and charitable organizations.

You are, I think you're actually the founder of project of that, you mind going into that a little bit.

Yeah, so after retirement in 2016, you know, the fortunate thing that I have or maybe unfortunate thing I had as being a command chief, you're kind of, you're, you're kind of walk through the VA system. You sit there in that transition, you know, taps the transition assistance program.

You get the VA brief and you kind of get the what I perceived as the, you know, what was me brief and the gentleman that briefed it probably weren't probably the best representatives of the VA or the VA system or the Department of disabled veterans or, you know, it was just, it was just kind of like, hey, here's how you get over on the government.

And I did perceive that as well because, you know, most of, you know, probably 99.9% of our special operators or people in special operations.

You ask them how they're doing and they're going to say, I'm good. Don't worry about it. I'm good. I'm not complaining because one nobody will listen and see nobody can do anything about it. So I'm just going to tell everybody I'm good and I'm going to drive on. I'm going to do the mission.

And so we've been doing that throughout our entire careers. And so when you get briefed by somebody that is not of your, you know, cloth, not of your culture, not of your, you know, brotherhood or sisterhood, you really don't take, you really don't take it the harder you don't take it kind of people had all good intentions, basically what they were trying to tell us and that transition assistance is, hey, when you go to the VA, when you get your appointment, tell them everything that's wrong with you.

You're no longer on jump status. You're no longer on die status. You're not going to get taken off the target because there's no more targets to be taken to.

And so it was, it's hard for people like us and you're going to experience the same thing when, when you get ready to retire, hopefully after this conversation and, you know, some conversations we have after this will, will set you up for success.

But the main thing is is that, you know, I was walk through the system and came out, I, I started with my retirement about a couple months right after retirement.

I was 80% cop and pen. I don't, you'll see, I don't use the word disability because I don't leave on disabled.

I think compensation and pension, just like anybody retiring or getting out of another job they received their compensation and pension for the job they did.

You can look at compensation and pension as something like, you know, this is, you know, the military rented me, you know, and Scott Zastro, one of my former teammates, the 18 delta on triple nickel when I went in the Afghanistan, you know, had the pleasure to be attached to them.

You know, Scott Zastro is our medical consultant. And the best way he broke it down for me was that I could understand, you know, for a guy that drags my knuckles across the ground when I walk is, this is so important.

Guys have to guys and girls have to realize that the military rented you, just like you would go out and rent a military car.

Or I mean, you went out and got a rental car and you've been on plenty of training trips. Yeah.

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