The American Military Brit

Unknown Speaker 0:01
This is the American military Britt,

Unknown Speaker 0:04
shedding light on the realities of military life. Now, here's your host, US Air Force Staff Sergeant Christopher Clark. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the American military bread podcast. This is a podcast where we talk to different military members to figure out the full story about the military. And we don't just focus on the rumors such as the Marines being crazy, or the army being stupid, we actually figure out from the people themselves what the story is with the military. So I hope you enjoy this podcast that we have for you today.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
How's everybody doing? Welcome to the American military brat podcast. So I'm excited about these next few episodes, because I'm going to be bringing you guys outtakes from my various podcasts that I did 10 of them in total all. First of all, thank you to the guests because they provided me with a lot of good material. And I want to share that with you guys. So we're gonna get into these these outtake episodes. So I'm going to go section by section here. So the first section is going to be my intro podcast. In this podcast I talked about, well in this outtake that I'm going to bring you I talked a lot about basic training in tech school. And in these outtakes I just I talked a lot about the details of basic training and tech school. So I just wanted to bring you a little more material on that, to be honest. So let's get into the intro podcast. So you get to listen to me. boringly talk about basic trading and tech school for a couple of minutes here. So let's get into it. Luckily, I got off crutches in time for week six, which is beast week. So

Unknown Speaker 1:44
you had the different week. So from zero week, zero to week eight. So it was eight weeks was eight and a half weeks technically, because week zero counts counts as like a half week, I think it was so. But yeah, in time for beast week, Beast week was basically being it was a way of, you know, testing your mind, if you will, of being involved in like, you know, like a wartime scenario. So he was sleeping in tents and whatnot. And it was, there was a lot going on there to be fair, but basic training in general was, it was an interesting, interesting spot, because I met a lot of people like a lot of Americans and whatnot from different different ways of life, like I got a friend who's from Georgia, and just to kind of like, hear his accent and hear the way he spoken, and the way he acted and whatnot. And that was the case with different people, because I'd never been surrounded by so many Americans at that point, you know, at least not, you know, the last time I was surrounded by all those Americans as when I was a little kid. So it was definitely a different scenario to be in. And,

Unknown Speaker 2:49
you know, for me, being from England, it was difficult, it was interesting for them to get, you know, used to me and for me to get used to them. So it was definitely an interesting experience overall. But you know, basic training in general, it was an interesting experience. And it's one that I'll definitely remember for the rest of my life church was the best part Church and the food, even though you didn't really have much time to eat the food. There was this one thing they had called liquor biscuit, where you literally would just I'd have like a biscuit, drench it in syrup and just eat it real quick. But it was literally just get in and get out pretty much. Which is why because they literally would like you'd have to lick the biscuit and go, but I'd like stuffed it down and then quickly leave sort of thing, which most people would do as well. But yeah, we'd go in there and rmti would be like looking at this skirt. It's like, okay, let's grab a biscuit. Get out basically, and get on with your day. But the best part about basic training, I think was church because church was like, a chilled environment on Sundays. Usually the MTI wouldn't be there. So you can go to church on Sundays, and you could just have a good time, talk to people and all different kinds of things. So it was a good time and basic training really, really wasn't I remember meeting the week eight graduates because when you'd meet the week eight graduates they'd be so so like positive and so happy. And you know, to eventually be a week eight graduate and be kind of,

Unknown Speaker 4:16
you know, talking to different people who are in like, their first weeks and seeing them around and, and whatnot, because you had the it's called E, C, D, E, and tree controller do E and

Unknown Speaker 4:28
there was a moment where, you know, you'd have the week as come in and like kind of teach you EC do E and whatnot. And we got to do that when we were week eight as well. So that was awesome, just to meet the first week, because then they'd be like, Oh, what's it like to go through basic training and it's just funny because they're just, you know, they're little kids, and they're only just starting out and it's just like, it's cute, you know? So,

Unknown Speaker 4:49
but overall, yeah, it was a great experience, but

Unknown Speaker 4:53
it's not, I don't know if it's something I'd want to do again, but it was definitely something that will live in my mind for a very long

Unknown Speaker 5:00
Time tech school was, it was a good time and sense of the people that you meet and the weekends and the good times you had. But it was bad because it was really, really stressful trying to learn how to be an intelligence professional. And being intelligence involves a lot of briefing, which you know, PowerPoint presentations and whatnot. And I didn't even know that when I got there. I remember the first assignment when we got there was to do a presentation on like, a certain news story that we got, and you know, all of us kind of looked at each other, like what's going on here? Because we weren't expecting that it was just kind of one of those things where, you know, they surprised us, essentially. So it was interesting. But yeah, tech school was up and down, to say the least.

Unknown Speaker 5:44
So we all have reasons why we joined the Air Force, right? I pretty sure I explained my journey. And, you know, going from, obviously, just going through education, and then not liking that, and then going through nothing jobs, and then just thinking, you know, let me just start fresh in the Air Force. And in this next clip, Shawn peach, and he talks about why he joined and how he was he went to college, he was delivering pizzas and all that thing. So we all we all have that journey that we go on. But I think overall, you have to look at the Air Force as it's a great place just to get some direction, because when you're in the Air Force, they take care of you. You have kind of all these things that are there a paid for you get all these allowances, it was honestly the most money I've ever made when I when I joined the Air Force. So I obviously I thought it was great. But everybody overall, just everybody has their reasons and their journey towards joining. So in this next clip, I talked to Sean about that. So here it is. I'm curious about why did you join the airforce? Like specifically, was there a moment that went on where you were like, oh, yeah, I want to join the Air Force, whatever it was. So a thing, actually, so my grandparents, were in the Air Force, my dad and my stepdad are in the Air Force. So it's like kind of a family thing. But when I was growing up, I said, you know, like, never gonna join the Air Force, because I'll never be in the Air Force is like, I'm not gonna go to a place where somebody's gonna yell at me, telling me what to do. Like, treat me like crap, you know, because I kind of see, you know, I see what the TV portrays and everything. And so, I was like, you know, I'm not going to do it. And then I graduated high school was kind of tooling around college at the time, Indiana, middle of nowhere, I was gonna get into some computer networking, like computer network business network administrator's, something like that, you know, is computer jobs are all the rage back then. Right? So like, but by the time I would have got out, you know, the career was already saturated. So I was like, well, kind of a loser, just delivering pizza. A school is not very fun. I was like, You know what, I was, like, I think I'm gonna join the Air Force. And like, you know, they should be able to help me kind of figure out, you know, what I want to do, I was like, I want to do a cool job. I want to do like some kind of like Intel thing, like, James Bond or something says like, yeah, I was like, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this. And I'm going to try to like, you know, get a get control of my life. Because at the time, it's just like, going to the university, you know, drinking, partying or whatever, you know, delivering pizzas on tips, blow my money, and just not I didn't have any real direction. So I was like, Man, I need some direction. And I was like, about the Air Force and give me some direction. So that's where I went. And then 18 years later, here, we are still here. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing that people really have to realize about. I don't want to speak for the whole military, but the Air Force, it's a good place to kind of, like I relate to that story that you were saying, you know, you you're lost in life. You're doing all these like nothing jobs. I mean, I wasn't delivering pizza, but I was like, I was doing door to door charity work. I just like talking to people trying to get them to invest in charity and stuff like that. So it's just like embarrassing, you know, and once again, asking you to please donate.

Unknown Speaker 9:04
Yeah, exactly. It was just, it was just bad. And like, I'm scared of dogs as well. So they'd always be dogs barking at the like, not all dogs, but like German Shepherds, especially like somebody had a German Shepherd once and I was like, Yeah, I'm out of here. But But yeah, the point is, the Air Force is a good place to get some direction.

Unknown Speaker 9:22
We all have dreams when we're younger, right? Like for most of us, so for a lot of us. It's a case of we want to make it in a sport. We want to become rich. Well, that's probably the reason that we're trying to get into the sport. I mean, yeah, obviously there's love for it with some people, but I mean, how you get compensated a lot, don't you if you make it big. So I spoke to Eric, Mr. Loving good, who I'm sure a lot of people are excited to hear from again. I spoke to him about why he joined the Air Force and he kind of gets into a story here about how he

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Got into football or he played football in high school and whatnot. And, you know, he got a concussion and he just didn't like the way that felt. So he decided to go elsewhere. And obviously, you'll see in the podcast that we had together, you know, his family, some of his family members were in and you can, you know, hear his entire story on on episode eight. But this this outtake here, it's a very interesting story. And it's, it's kind of one of those things that people should hear man because it explains again, a different perspective on somebody's journey of getting into the into the Air Force. So here is Mr. Levin, good. Ladies and gentlemen, how did you get into the military? Like what made you Was there a specific moment because a lot of us have moments in our life, like, you know what, my life sucks, I'm just going to join the military or join the Air Force or whatever. So was there a moment in your life where you felt that so when I was in high school, I should play football. And I was pretty out pretty good at it. But I didn't get any looks at like, like by any like D one schools or anything like that. But I did get a couple from a couple from different like D two or d3 schools or whatever. But during my winter, like my last year of playing football in high school, I remember I hit this guy going down the sideline, and I had a bad concussion.

Unknown Speaker 11:25
And I lived for the last like, for the next three days. Like when I was being conversation with people were swaying to me, like they were moving, like, and I remember that night, I had went home and I had to put my foot on the ground wha while I was in bed, just to give me my orientation of where I was. So the room was spinning man, like I had a bag because it man. And so after the season happened, man, my coach came to me and he was like, hey, you know, we can put together some stuff if you if that's what you want to do. And I was like, COVID on be honest with you, man. If I gotta wake up like this every day, to just play football. Hey, I'm good.

Unknown Speaker 11:58
Like, I was running back. And, you know, I got hit all the time. You know what I mean? And so I knew football, I just kind of let that go.

Unknown Speaker 12:08
So boot camp, or basic training, whatever you want to call it, right? The question or the thought process, at least, I've heard from several people is whether Do you do you prepare for it? Do you not prepare for it? And you get both ways, right? You get some people who don't prepare it, you get some people who did who did prepare for it like myself, I did a lot of prep. But in this clip, I talked to Aaron about that. That whole process because there were like we like as we both saw there was people who did prepare those people who didn't prepare. And that could be for different reasons. Maybe you were an athlete in school, maybe you weren't. Maybe you already had a gym routine or workout routine. Maybe you didn't. So some people I guess just came to basic training looking to get in shape. So we talked about that in this next clip. So here it is. It was it's very surprising. Like you're saying people being not prepared for boot camp, right? I, I trained a lot before boot camp. And then I got there and there was a lot of people who were out of shape. And I was thinking, Wait a minute, did I just do this for no reason. It was just kind of like it was it was very strange, because I thought everybody was going to be you know, crazed, because I had a certain perception of what the military was. And I thought, yeah, I need to get prepared for this, because this is going to be intense, but it wasn't as intense as I thought it would be you on the Air Force, you know, you guys get to do all the cardio and computer chairs, you know.

Unknown Speaker 13:39
There you go. Yeah, but I mean, you know, you're absolutely right. So like, for me, I was playing,

Unknown Speaker 13:44
you know, sports all through high school and I was in amazing shape. So, you know, you know, marine and army bootcamp is really tough, right? And see Navy's behind it, and not saying Air Force isn't but you know, the Navy, I remember. Same thing we had, we had some classmates that were, you know, right at the the last Age Group 37, too, you know, I was here I'm 17 years old, a bunch of us 17 1819 with, you know, middle aged men. 3536 our boot camp commander was 37 years old. And you're absolutely right. He struggled. It was it was tough. And for all those young guys and skinny and in great shape. We couldn't wait to go running. You know, we were begging to go out and get some exercise, you know, and so you're right. There's

Unknown Speaker 14:34
some people that didn't train I don't think they realize what they got themselves into. And they paid a dear price when they went there because Navy boot camp is not

Unknown Speaker 14:45
it's physical. You know, like I said somewhere in between like Air Force and the Navy or the army Marines. And but you know, everyday still got to run a couple miles and marching around on hot asphalt in San Diego. So even as something as simple

Unknown Speaker 15:00
was marching around a lot of people struggled with it, you know, high knees, you know, it's like among us is easiest thing because a lot of people weren't athletes in school, they're sitting around and you knew which ones were, you know which ones were were the laggards because they didn't put it in navy, they didn't put him in the back. They put them in the front, they put all the hard chargers in the back, you know, the push them, they weren't gonna let them fall behind. And so but in here, we all made it work. And, you know, I, I like bootcamp.

Unknown Speaker 15:34
One thing that I'm always interested to hear is what each branch kind of experiences as far as doing basic training, is there a female male separation? Or are the females and males together? I mean, obviously, they're not together in the same flight, but are they within the vicinity of each other and stuff like that. So in this next clip, I do talk to Josh about that this was episode, an outtake from Episode Four. But like, for example, at the Air Force, basic training, you just you, we had our female sister flight in the dorm that was right next to us in the same building. But obviously, we weren't really supposed to integrate with each other. And, you know, in basic training, anytime you got close to a female, you usually got yelled at those were the very few times that I did get yelled at was you you'd be marching through, say, the de facto, whatever it's called the chow hall. And you'd get too close to a female and someone would yell at you. But that's besides the point. I mean, this this next clip is just just talking about in the Marines, kind of the female male separation and how that whole things work. So enjoy. How many, how many girls did you did you guys have for? Did you do basic training, like with females? Or was it like separated? I don't know. How does that work? So we have East Coast, West Coast, we have Hollywood Marines, and then we have the real Marines. But officers and females get trained and the East Coast. So there's that little military job for you. Sorry, everyone. But

Unknown Speaker 17:12
yeah, they're separated from when I was in, I believe they become integrated even on the west coast. But if you talk to an East Coast Marine, they would talk to you about going through segregated boot camps. And then you go on to a follow on school called Marine combat training for a month, where you learn basic infantry stuff, I highly doubt it's basic infantry stuff. It's just pokes trying to feel cool. But I mean, essence, every Marine is a rifleman, we have to learn it. It's kind of fun. But those platoons were integrated from what I understand. And yeah, I used to talk to the guys and gals that were we get to MOS schools, like what's it like training with females, and that just, just like everywhere else, it's great sucks. It's awesome. It's not. And they're just people. We're all just people at the end of the day.

Unknown Speaker 18:00
Next up is my guy, Moses Walters, right. And this, this section is really good. It's actually really important because the supervisor airman relationship, it's very, very complicated, or the supervisor, Airman bond, whatever you want to call it, because you get all these AM. And like, for example, in Lakenheath, I was supervisor to must have been like five plus Amarin. And that was the most I'd ever been in charge of. And it's essentially like, you're just looking after your kids. Basically, that's what I can imagine having kids is like, and they screw up all the time. I mean, when I was an M, and I was a screw up as well, it's just like, you essentially, you're coming into the Air Force, and you just reset like you just suddenly you don't know anything, you could have been the big boss back when you were a civilian. But when you come in, and you're an M, and you just do stupid things. And yeah, but there's still a certain bond that you develop with your Airman and this is kind of what me and Moses are talking about in this in this next little snippet. So yeah, here's me and Moses talking about that bond that supervisors and airmen have. So to be fair, Chris, right, like

Unknown Speaker 19:18
young airmen.

Unknown Speaker 19:21
I'd say half and half I won't say generally but half now they suck Yeah, they're trying to find themselves there. They don't understand like life yet. They haven't experienced shit, right? Like they don't they're not really on board with like the mindset of reporting to people meeting deadlines, acting re watching themselves when they're away from work. But you had some special ones I'm not gonna lie. You got some really special ones in terms of the issues department. Yeah. Oh, I thought you meant special isn't good. I was like, why would that special left dry? That's, that's Oh, you meant? Oh, my amazing. I was blessed. And I did but yeah,

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Yeah, but it's it's, the thing is though you you develop kind of a bond with your airman so even though they annoy you so much, sometimes you they're almost like your kids base. Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of weird. But as you say, there's two sides to it to like you the person, the people that they are shorter, great, but the airmen that they are in terms of like, you care for them, but then you're like, why did you do this incredibly stupid thing that's gonna get both of us put in blues, and make both of us look like idiots. Yeah, right. Yeah, like, you're just like, Man, why did you do this to me? Because it's all it always comes back to the supervisor. However, the airman got a DUI only he had to show up and blues. Like I have to be there. You looked at me. And he like I was I was getting my blues ready. I was like, Oh, here we go. Actually, we do. Yeah, I just showed up in a BU's, and it was all good to Well, wait, what are they called? Now? They're not called at us anymore. Oh, yeah. OCP OCP. Sorry. Yes. That's what I meant. I was about to say.

Unknown Speaker 21:02
Yeah, we're not that old. OCPs. That's it. But yeah, yeah, Lakenheath was interesting, ladies and gentlemen.

Unknown Speaker 21:10
All right. Next, I'm going to bring you the man, the myth, the legend, fan favorite, Mr. Grant Herson. So episode two. And yeah, a lot of people loved this episode, a lot of people loved grant as a guest. And it was basically just because he told it how it is. And he spoke a lot about the ins and outs for the Air Force. But one thing was we were stationed in England together. And he was very much about experiencing the culture. And that's one thing that, you know, if you are in the Air Force, and you go somewhere, I think is very important to experience the culture, take it in, travel around as much as you can, and don't just, you know, relegate yourself to just being within the American bubble, so to speak. So grant talks a lot about in this kind of little speech that he gives just about the experience of football, or soccer, as some may say. And he just gets into it, and like kind of how he experienced it while he was in England. So here's grant, folks would sit at home and stream the Real Madrid game on TV or the man you game on TV, and you just go to the stadium, it's, it's not that hard to get there. Not that hard to do. And it's a wild experience to think back 20 years ago, when I was first learning about soccer and watching it on TV, to now saying, oh, yeah, been there, been there been there, I've been there. And it's really blessed to have as many experiences I had to live as many places I have, and get to experience as many different things as I have. Yeah, and even to touch on the football thing. Like, even if you can't, you know, you can't afford to go to the game or whatever, you don't want to go to the game. It's just as good sometimes going to a pub, you know, wherever and just experiencing the atmosphere of watching the game, I have to admit, right now I've seen zero episodes of Game of Thrones, because I don't have a TV at home.

Unknown Speaker 23:12
And if you're living somewhere, whether it's a few years here in Nevada, or a few years in England, you think about that as like having, you know, having 52 weekends or having 104 weekends available to you. And you got to go out there and make the most of them. Right. And just to your point, you know, even even on a Tuesday night after work, if I wanted to watch the game, I would tell myself, you know, go down to the local pub and get a beer and like shot with the with the locals. Because even some of the craziest stories are just walking from my apartment, around the corner to the pub, and having something go on or seeing somebody or meeting somebody interesting at the game watching, just watching on TV. The Game of Thrones reference there, by the way, Game of Thrones is amazing. It is very time consuming. And and one day when I'm 70 years old and retired. I will look it up and I'll knock them all out in a few weeks and I'll be up to speed. But for no sense and no sense in using your your weekends while you're young and living somewhere fun. I mean, you're almost at 20 years, you know when you retire. There you can There you go. You can do it, man. It's it's doable. But anyway,

Unknown Speaker 24:21
on this podcast, I've tried to have as many different people as possible. But I think overall, one person you can definitely say who's been on this podcast definitely has the most experience and that's Ross, Brian Wright, who was on Episode Five. And me and Ross we met at the mbsc the Military Veteran Services Center here on UNLV. And a big reason I actually joined UNLV was because of the veteran community and the fact that I was separating from active duty Air Force and going into the reserves and you know

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Knowing that there was a good veteran community here, it was a good place to go to here in Las Vegas at UNLV. And Ross, you know, in his podcast, he talked a lot about his career and kind of how it led him to UNLV. But this this little snippet of an outtake from his his episode kind of talks about his journey and how he made it here to UNLV and stood up the MVC that still sits here to this day. So just listen to Ross and his his experience and kind of what he talks about as far as going into that role. So I had all these different deployments during that period, though, because I had five years enlisted, my manager was saying, hey, you've had all these commands, you've done all these things very well. You've had all these deployments. But now, you have to have a nominal assignment. So I got sent to ROTC to teach cadets how to be future officers at Cal State San Bernardino. And I was selected to be a Ukrainian foreign area officer, where they paid for my master's and I was supposed to go to language school, that did not pan out. And then what ultimately happened, I can't go back to tanks because I've been out of that assignment. The process to be a foreign area officer was defunded. And then also in an armor branch, they called me and said, Hey, we have a interesting opportunity for you. But it's sort of the end of your career. We need somebody to go to UNLV, and open up a closed ROTC program. And with your experience, you're the guy. But that would be back to back ROTC. And so you're never going to make Lieutenant Colonel, if you're okay with that, and I had four years ago, so I got to UNLV stood up a premier program that is here to this day. And that was my last assignment here. And the networking here has resulted in me being at UNLV. For 20 years, I was known as the army guy who stood up the Vet Center. So in all that background,

Unknown Speaker 27:04
it's been 40, some years of leading people, leading soldiers, leading a team that takes care of vets, I feel blessed to still be doing all those kinds of things. And then the generation that you're a part of coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, the transition challenges that every vet faces, everyone has a different transition challenge. And so being able to help is sort of my own therapy. So my own transition from turning down Lieutenant Colonel, because I got offered Lieutenant Colonel to go to the Pentagon, it's my last assignment, didn't want to do it. But being here at UNLV, and building a program that takes care of you and your generation of vets is very rewarding, because we are approaching our 10 year anniversary, we've had over 3000 graduates 70% graduation rate, a lot of these folks are combat vets with multiple deployments, who then come back and have to transition to new careers. And we've also helped those who have really been struggling on the other side, you hear all the time, trying to combat suicide and different things that have come our way.

Unknown Speaker 28:10
And so I'm just proud of everything we've been doing.

Unknown Speaker 28:15
Will finish on to me talking about the UNLV veterans community. So I'm not going to go into this too much because I have spoken about how I, I came here because of the veteran community and whatnot. But this just again, expresses further and further just how, how tight of a crew it is basically, because to me, it does no, you know, to me, Erin, and Ross, who have all heard on the podcast, they all know each other and I believe it's the veterans Alumni Club, in which to me it works for and, and they're all kind of just one community, which helps out everybody who's who's a veteran and whatnot. So this again, just expresses how good that community is. So here's to me. So the veteran Alumni Club reaches back also, I love the concept of reaching back having gone and lived my life and gone and experience life as it is, and reach back to someone else who's coming through that process. So we reach back to the people who currently are here on campus. You know, we work with Ross, Brian, I know you had him on here before, you know the rebel vets, and we celebrate them. We see what we can do to support them. You know, we look in the community for veterans that would be able to help mentor and also help employ, you know, and help people with internships, things such as that so that we can ensure the success of our veterans in our community here, and specifically UNLV. But of course, when we reach out to veteran business owners in the community, then we also have that opportunity to let veterans who may not have come from UNLV but they

Unknown Speaker 30:00
did come from military service. Give them also the opportunity to reach back. Yeah. And can I just say as well one thing, a big reason I did come to Las Vegas and UNLV, as we were talking about before, was the amount of like veteran support and the fact that there is a good veteran community around here.

Unknown Speaker 30:21
Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of the American military Brett, the outtakes. We're gonna have more outtake episodes coming. So be sure to tune in and listen to all the different things that I unfortunately had to cut out of the different podcasts. So tune in for that to hear some more great content. So thank you for listening and goodbye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai