Hello everybody welcome back to the Phil Crafts Survival podcast. I'm your host Mike G and today on the podcast we got Raul Martinez. What's up bro?

What's going on Mike? I like a way said my name. No I'm feeling a lot better yesterday now is exhausted yesterday but.

Today we're doing a podcast with Raul and Raul.

Is a combative guru.

Former undercover former patrol officer former military guy former contractor.

And yeah you've done a lot of stuff man give us a give us a little bit about your background.

Yeah for sure man it's flattering to hear you say those things actually because it always sounds better when somebody else reads your bio.

Yeah just you know growing up in the city it was it was interesting because and this is kind of where it all picks up the combative stuff growing up.

In a really urban environment in Chicago like we fought and nobody was mad at each other we would just fight and it would be.

No winning or losing it was just like all right let's test each other's metal and then we shake hands and we'd be all good after that you know it's a lot different than now where do you want to destroy each other for no reason they want to kill each other they want to escalate yeah it's like why go there let's learn from each other.

So yeah grew up in a cool environment as far as that a lot of old buddies are either in jail or dead and it was cool that my mom was able to kind of get us out of that area.

From there high school was fun joined the army did eight years there closing on ten I think eight or ten I don't even remember anymore but my last few were so I did one combat deployment to we were in Iraq from seven and nine missed the two buddies we lost but we always think of them and that's how they live on right.

And after that came back home I always laughed because I'm like there are no parades when I came home because I stayed after and did a couple extra months and yeah came back got joined the guard or not the guard the reserves as a drill sergeant did that for a while that was awesome that's kind of where I learned and grew the affinity for teaching which then translated to what came later.

From there did some contracting stuff was an australia Jamaica Barbados just random places where high end dudes wanted to go do things and I'm going to cultivate in that area yeah that was a lot of fun ended up on the Chicago police department after that I didn't know I was going to be a cop honestly I really didn't.

But cool is a good thing that happened on patrol there quickly moved into attack role and then undercover within three years I was undercover which is kind of unheard of for for the department it's it's a lot based on resumes and who you know and how well you can articulate your experience and and use that to the benefit I remember my first day in undercover man they're like here's a car I want you to make sure our guys don't get screwed up you're doing surveillance.

That kind of confidence that they have in you do that so cool and it was he was a supervisor willing to put me out there just like here go do this make sure that our guys are good let's see if you're you're what you're saying and I was like just done so it was good everything turned out well we ended up picking up a couple guys that day and and I was on I was on the team from there.

That's where I kind of started to see that there was a lack of training for really close proximity stuff in cars and alleys and gangways and how man laundry rooms anywhere where you can think of somebody buying some dope there was there was that level of training that was missing I remember chasing dudes down alleyways they turn into a hall or to a gangway and then there's a fence and now you're in a three by three hallway with a giant fence and then you're the next wall so the dude wants to get through you so you can go and get a walk.

You got to do something right so that was cool that we were starting to see these things and pick these things up and so I wanted to fill in the blank and that's kind of where a lot of the training comes from after Chicago police after the undercover stuff I jump over to the academy start teaching dudes how to shoot run the ranges learning a lot from the older crew did that that was a lot of fun learned a lot learned a lot of what to do what not to do what regulations are and why there's a deficiency in training and a lot of it has to do with the legal department not that they're not going to do that.

The dudes can't get the training so you're kind of stuck in an area where the training is potentially there but there's nobody to teach it and then the legal side of the department is it authorizing it so there's a lot of little hiccups that they're going to hold programs back which is cool why we we have the option now to offer this training because they can come to us and get it they don't have to worry about their department right so spend a lot of time I spent two years training at the academy that was awesome being an instructor there got fully certified through Illinois to be a lot of people.

I was a dog instructor and then I kind of resigned from there moved with over to Arizona. I was on the sheriff's office here in town did that for a little bit and just kind of wasn't my thing so pulled away started to really hone in on the program put the program together found what applied as far as you know patrol guys and dudes in the middle of the woods and dudes in small confined spaces and was like I want to sit down I'm going to make this program and I find dudes that want to do that.

Bring it forward and that's kind of how I ended up here doing the podcast with you man.

Yeah I know if you guys follow all the stuff that we do on Phil Cross of Rob will you know we talk about Chicago inner city statistics because I mean literally the most dangerous places in the United States or in neighborhoods like Austin for example in the inner city.

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