The American Military Brit

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

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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 0:36
Hello, everyone, welcome to the American military Brett podcast for today we have a special guest on I'm actually really excited about this one because so far I've only had Air Force guys on and I've never really gotten to spoke fully to a person in the Marines about their experience. So this one, this one's cool, man. I'm here with Joshua Chavez. And he's going to be talking about his experience in the in the Marines. So first of all, just introduce yourself to the audience, a very small audience, just who you are and things of that nature. Hello, very small audience. I am a former military member, obviously a Marine. I served for six years from 2010 to 2016. Then I got out because I wanted to go to school use that GI bill that Uncle Sam gave me and now I'm talking to Chris. Yeah. So like you, obviously you separated. What do you what are you doing right now? Right now I'm trying to start my own company. Actually, it's a marketing firm. So social media marketing. I wanted to do journalism originally. That's why I ended up at Greenspun at UNLV. But the concentration of PR marketing was offered. And that's something I really gravitated towards just naturally. So I'm doing that right now and trying to look for an actual marketing job. All right, nice. Would you say any of your skills that you learned while you were in the Marines kind of helped you to, you know, get into this whole journalism thing that you're doing right now? And social media aspect? Yes, actually, long story, but journalism comes from the military when I was in Saudi Arabia, okay. Just a lot of things going on out there. And a lot of interesting stuff that I thought people should know about, is the whole reason why I wanted to be involved with social or, excuse me journalism. And then naturally, I saw the progression of journalism kind of dying out, in my opinion. And it's moving more towards digital media. And plus, I've always wanted to be creator. So like, as a child, I wanted to create things, and I was all laughy and whatnot. So I was just something that kind of made a good segue met Well, on the road, you know?

Unknown Speaker 2:55
Okay, so continuing on here, just wanted to talk to Joshua here about his basic training and his training and his job experiences. Because, as I was kind of saying earlier, it's just one of those things where I feel like people have a certain image about how Marines are, and you know, different things of that nature. They have their own assumptions, which is why it's good that we're talking about this, but just kind of like, because, you know, I've seen it on YouTube. And I've seen it in the movies and all this stuff of what, like, what marine basic training is like. So just kind of talk about that experience and what that was like.

Unknown Speaker 3:34
So the basic training, what you're going to see, we refer to as boot camp, and people who are new in the military, in my opinion, haven't done a whole lot. They'll be like, Oh, it's boot camp, it's not basic training, it doesn't matter. It's basic training, whatever. The main factor of it is, I went in 2010. So that was quite a while ago. I'm sure things have changed by then, because everything changes over time. All right, but everything that you see on YouTube, as far as like the Marines getting yelled at their foot lockers getting thrown and stuff like that, that's literally just the tip of the iceberg. And it makes for great dogs of war, but it doesn't make for great citizens after they get out. So it's an interesting type thing. But it's, you have to understand that the Marines are supposed to be the tip of the spear. They're supposed to be the guys who go in Door to Door kick down and do a whole bunch of quote unquote, cool guy stuff. So I mean, you kind of do have to have a thick skin to have that job because at the core of it, every Marine is a rifleman. Sure we all know how to shoot rifles, but I mean, most of us just call once or twice a year, and then that's it. I mean, that was my extent of it for quite some time, until I switch MOS is but again, that's later. But yeah, boot camps great. You just have to learn to frame it in a very positive mindset. If

Unknown Speaker 5:00
You're there for a positive reason, a good reason not to just go to school or whatever, you know, for a shallow reason, as our drill instructors put it, you'll be fine. Because they'll push you through the military boot through Marine Corps boot camp, because they've spent so much money getting your physical done getting your training done, they spent a lot of money on you, and they're gonna give you a bottle if you need it. Unfortunately, that's the reality. You know, there are some Marines who gasher in the movies. I'm sure there are Marines out there doing Special Forces stuff right now. But again, there's also regular people that are Marines that run the administrative side, make sure people get paid. Make sure that Chows getting served food, sorry, make sure that people are getting their supplies on time. You know, I mean, it's a whole community. It's just like any other community. It's just a little bit more hardcore, you know? Yeah. So it's like a, it's a, I call it America's fraternity. That's how I look at it. Okay. Or one of America's fraternities excuse me, because we're all fraternity brothers. Yeah. And I just thought, like, let me kind of take it back a little bit. I didn't really, I didn't really ask you how, like, why you joined sort of thing? Like, what was the Was there a specific reason or moment or whatever. So a shameless plug. So if you want that, go to Joshua trees, 20 one.com on my Instagram and hit my my link tree, because that reason is too dark to discuss here. But I will tell you, the actual reason that I did decide to go was, honestly, the there's truth to this that I did want to protect those who cannot protect themselves. At a time in my life, I was a powerless individual who could not stand up to an oppressor. And through that I wanted to gain strength and help those who cannot protect themselves. Okay. So that's the honest reason. It was wrongly framed back then. But again, hit me up on Instagram, to that story. Okay, no, no, no, that's, that's fine. But how long is marine basic training or bootcamp? I want to say like 13 weeks, it's a little bit longer than army's or something like that. Okay. Yeah. Because, obviously, I went through basic training. And I thought afterwards, I don't know if you had the same kind of thought process, but I was just kind of like, Yeah, this is pretty easy. Actually, like a first one. I was there. You know, it's something different. And you're thinking, oh, man, like, I hate this. But after what, like when you finish it, you just like, yeah, that was really easy. So absolutely. Our drill instructors always used to tell us embrace the suck. And that's something you heard all the time throughout every formal school you went to in the military, alright, but it really is a mindset that helps you just have fun with the boys. Yeah. Easiest way to put it. Yeah. Okay, so you go from basic training, then you do Marine combat combat training. And then like, where do you When do you go to like, learn your job that you go into, boom, that's the next one we go to. So from Marine combat training, you get shipped off to your MOS. Okay, yes. My MOS was a 1341. Because everyone loves to lead off with a number that no one knows even in the military. A 1341 in the Marine Corps is a heavy equipment mechanic. So I just work on construction equipment. Okay, yeah. So you guys have like specific codes because for me, I was intelligence. That was a one, one and 0x one. Oh, every I know. Army uses like 91 Lima for 1341 or something. I might be way off. But I'm just saying that it's like two digits and then

Unknown Speaker 8:45
letter four to identify the thing everyone does their MOS is differently. And then how long was that training school? Like to learn your job? I think those are like four months? Not very long. Okay. And where was it a fort lost in the woods on an army base in Fort Leonard Wood and misery.

Unknown Speaker 9:03
I was stationed in Missouri for five years. So no, I never went to that base. I only drove past it. Okay. So but I that's where the prison is. Right? Is that where the prison is? There's a prison of there were some there might be I don't know, is way out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a lot of trees.

Unknown Speaker 9:21
Okay, so next we'll talk about we'll get into kind of the assignments that you that you did, because obviously, I'm not like I said, I'm not too familiar with the assignments that Marines do. But like, what was the what was the first place that you went to kind of after your training for your job and all that stuff? So after military school or Yeah, Midwest school, after all that stuff? Yeah. I showed up to Yuma, Arizona in 2011. February 2011. And then September that year, we were in Afghanistan.

Unknown Speaker 9:55
We'll get into that later. But like, as far as your assignments, that was my assignment. I

Unknown Speaker 10:00
went from my unit. Then we went to Afghanistan, then we came back. And then my assignment switched from being a heavy equipment mechanic because of Benghazi. There was just a order from Obama that said, we need more embassy guards, even though that's not our job at all. And then I got selected. And that was my next assignment. So I technically only had two assignments in the military. It was a heavy equipment mechanic with my first unit, which I deployed to Afghanistan with but we'll talk about that later. And then I went to Virginia Quantico, Marine Corps Base Quantico, if anyone knows to do MSC guard school. And yeah, after that, I went to Saudi Arabia, Portugal, and Ethiopia. Okay. And those counters like deployments, like Portugal, for example, yes, I just call them assignments, I say only deployed once about everyone. I have overseas service, I have foreign service for like, more than three years. But I just say Nayeli deployed once because I did I only did one combat deployment. Everything else was Foreign Service, technically. Okay. Because like so, as far as actual assignments, it was just Arizona, and it was Virginia. And like, what was your like, day to day duties as you know, as much as you can go into it without obviously, like, first getting into the fleet at Yuma Yeah, first, get into the fleet. at Yuma, you're the lowest guy on the totem pole, obviously, unless you have a little bit more rank on your collar, but I was a PFC and e to when I showed up there, and day in day out would be getting up at like 505 for pt, pt until like 05 45, take a shower, switch over be at the shop at 06 30. So you have to get Chow, you have to, you have to go get food from the cafeteria. And then you have to I worked on a base that was separate from my main base. So it was called P 111. No clue why it was called that. I didn't ask a whole lot of questions in the military when I first got there, because as a junior enlisted warrior, it's not your job to ask questions. It's to shut up and do yes. And that was what I learned for the first phase of my military career was to just, hey, if you want to be a leader, first, you got to shut up and learn how to actually do what we do and figure out the reasons for it later. But right now, we got to see if you can even do it, kid. And yeah, it was very high pace of driving to work, barely making it to formation, getting information changing into coveralls because I was a heavy equipment mechanic, then just working on construction equipment that we had, we did preventive maintenance. So that way, the gear was always well taken care of to the best of its abilities, we would do troubleshooting very basic stuff. We used to call a glorified Jiffy Lube, because we'd mainly do electrical work. And then just large part placements. If anything really broke, we would send it off to a third or fourth shop, where they would actually take apart the component and then rebuild it and then ship it back to us. Okay. And then like, as far as assignments go, how easy is it in the Marines to like, move around and get like a different assignment? Like, how does that work? Do you volunteer to go somewhere? Or do they just say, No, you're just going here? And that's it? End of story. Great question. Next question. No, just kidding.

Unknown Speaker 13:26
So I think that really depends on the individual, and what you're trying to do.

Unknown Speaker 13:32
I'm not a career planner, I was never a career planner. So I don't really know about that whole part. But if you do do basic marine stuff, like after you're done working, go work out and actually apply yourself do what's called marine college Institute's it's way to get education points. So you rank up faster, and you do the things you're supposed to do throughout your military life of just like trying to improve yourself. It'll be a lot easier for you to lateral move, I believe it's called when you go from one position to the next. Unfortunately, for me, I never got to lateral move. I was just a heavy equipment mechanic. I got picked, I picked up what's called a B MOS. I don't know why it's a B MOS. But it's just a special duty assignment. So there's no official MOS and the Marines as a Marine security guard. That's just a job someone can get if they're qualified. And when Yeah, Benghazi happened in 2012. We were coming back from Afghanistan, and I came back and they're like, Garcia, Chavez, you to have to go fill out a packet and we're like, but we don't want to go. And then they said, Well, that's too bad. You have to go fill out a packet. And then you can decide if you want to go later. And then we're like, Okay, well, that makes sense. And then yeah, they recruited me again. And I remember why I joined I literally joined to be Marine security guard. I just forgotten about that. So

Unknown Speaker 15:00
That's kind of, that's kind of cool. Okay, so the special duty is more of a, you're not you don't volunteer, you're voluntold, as we would always say, and therefore, exactly, you're voluntold for it. Or you can go to your career planner, once I believe you have, like 18 months on on your current duty station, and then ask them, Hey, are there any slots open for, like, special duty assignments like that, or another MOS. But the best thing you can do for yourself is to pardon me is to look at the standards and then just exceed them. Because you're going to be competing with a whole bunch of other military members, that I also think they're great, because we're Marines. So we think we're great. And once you are pitted against other people who are actually well trained, you start to realize you're not good, and you need to work a lot harder. So that would be the easiest way to move around.

Unknown Speaker 15:54
Alright, so with with Marines, this is one thing you hear a lot of, it's like, if you if you deploy, you're basically on the front line, like guaranteed. So this is something I kind of want to hear the truth as much as possible about so I'm curious about your your deployments, because you said you went to Afghanistan. Right? So yeah, so yeah, just kind of talk because I did talk to some Air Force guys on this podcast about Afghanistan. And I'm sure it's a very different experience to what yours was. So yeah, just kind of talk about that. And what it was like, So there I was.

Unknown Speaker 16:34
Because possible, anyone who goes Afghanistan, I feel like they always start out with like, the So there, I was sorry. But I think probably our deployments weren't that different. Because as a heavy equipment mechanic, my job is not to go and kick down doors. That's why I was a little upset at spaghetti, when I realized that my recruiter lied to me. And I was like, Oh, dang, I don't get to go do that I have to stay on base and become a fob it if anyone knows what that is, that means you're on a Ford outpost base, and you just do nothing but work on it.

Unknown Speaker 17:08
So I was just on bases working on heavy equipment mechanic day in day out, it was terrible. Because I want to say we got out four hours asleep for the first three months, we were there per night, because all of our stuff kept getting blown up and just kept going down. They would go out on missions, and then oh, no are greater, or bulldozers that they would attach mine rakes to the front of to clear pathways, they get blown up. And then we'd have to try and fix it if we could and whatnot. So it was just, it was a very high paced tempo of being a mechanic. So it was weird. We did have a couple of scares, I mean,

Unknown Speaker 17:48
so there's always like, air raids, not air raids, but like the air sirens that there's incoming. Those happen often. So I mean, that's not really a big deal. You just hear a siren go off, then you just run into a concrete bunker as fast as you can. And hopefully it doesn't hit by where you're standing. So those happen day in and day out. Not very frequently. The worst time it was is when it would happen is when you're asleep. So you'd be dead asleep at three in the morning. And then you'd hear sirens go off. And you're like, oh, no, everyone runs out the bunker. Because yeah. So I mean, you would hear the far off in the distance. But other than that, it was a little.

Unknown Speaker 18:29
It was just I say normal, because I think that's what I have to look at it as I was discussing this with someone the other day, because they were asking me about deployments as well. There was a certain point where the Marine Corps snipers, I believe, had peed on some Taliban bodies and reported them doing that. And they started to attack us in the showers. So we had to go into buddy pairs and there would be one rain just outside the shower just waiting for TSN third country national excuse me to try and make a move and yeah, just protect your brother. That's pretty much about it. That's a that's normal. Because I don't know, we're warriors, and we're always ready for war. So I mean, it's not it does sound intense, but in the moment it just felt not right but normal. Right. There's a Yeah, so just a couple of things I wanted to address there. So if you're, you're at like, you kind of said like a Fulbright so you're at like a smaller base. You weren't like you know, Kandahar or like COBOL or whatever. There was enough ganas so I went to Leatherneck and then I went to Dwyer Dwyer still pretty big too. It's a very big base. Okay, you can go to like very small

Unknown Speaker 19:48
posts. I made a stupid comment.

Unknown Speaker 19:52
That got me net like x Sneed from all cool missions, looking at in retrospect, do on here.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Yeah, go ahead, man. So we first show up, you first show up to Afghanistan, it's all blurry, you're moving your gear, your units trying to get trained, you're getting rules of engagement, you're going over deadly force. You're snapping in your rifles. You know, you're trying to cope with your new reality and just have a good time. So I like dark humor. And my dark humor did not sit well with my platoon sergeant Sergeant means while we were snapping in on the range, he said, he had us in a little school circle. And when once we got over to Afghanistan, it was really cool. Because it was like, We were invited to the big boys table. Everyone was treating us differently. It was like, okay, like, we have respect. They respect us now. And Sergeant means is like, so which one of you young pups wants to go out? And you know, see some fish and I was like, firsthand up in the air. I know, my boy, Cody's got a wife at home. And my boy, Josh Wilson also has a loved one. Me and my girl weren't doing so well. So I was like, Yo, your boy right here, I'm expendable. As soon as that left my mouth, his fists came through my chest and grabbed my blouse. And he pulled me like an inch from his face. He said, If I ever hear you say you're expendable again, I will beat the living out of you. And that was a very intense moment where I was like, low key. I was joking. Like I I was joking, quote unquote, remarkable. But

Unknown Speaker 21:28
yeah, it was one of those moments where you realize this isn't really a joke anymore. For some people, this is real. And for some people like me, it was messing around on a base having a good time. I mean, I don't know if that's like a good kind of thought process to have because you sounded like you were very positive about it at least. So I mean, I don't know if he had assaulted me. I had been through Iraq and Afghanistan. Okay, so it was, it was it was it really was growing up? It was like, Oh, I

Unknown Speaker 22:03
don't know. Sorry. I triggered someone by saying something stupid. And yeah, he was right. No, life is expendable. You know, I'm trying to relax and be cool and everything like that, but I don't know time in place. That's what I learned. Yeah. Cuz like, I've never been to Afghanistan or Iraq. I was supposed to go to Afghanistan, but that got changed to much softer Qatar, they're like, go to Qatar, like, sure. I'll go there. Great. That's a lot safer. It wasn't that great, to be honest. But it's a lot like safer, I guess. So. But like people always tell me, a lot of times you're talking about the attacks and stuff like you go to a bunker and all that, like people always tell me about the mortar attacks. Like you always hear the mortars I can hear the what is it? Those things that like shoot them down? I forget what they're called. But But yeah, like, you always kind of hear about those stories. But yeah, it's just cool to get a different perspective. And I had my Corporal Grau, one of the Marines from our sister unit, he came back from Whitehorse or something like that. And he was telling us about this is crazy. He was just saying, He's saying, I just smoked a cigarette, and then bullets are flying past my head. And then I realized we were getting shot at. And then I got down, because I realized we're getting shot at. And I was like, Oh, my goodness, that's insane. And then like, yeah, it's just how it is on the small fobs. I was like, I want to go but yeah, never made it. Darn.

Unknown Speaker 23:31
A couple of, I just want to wanted to talk about with Joshua, like, why he separated, but there was something I wanted to bring up because it's like one of the best quotes I've ever seen, honestly was, and he I saw it, I saw it on your Instagram, but a couple of other people posted it. It was something that Tim Kennedy said, okay, yeah, it was this this quote, no one is coming to save you. No one is coming to help you. No one is going to come and fight for you. It's all up to you prepare for that. And that was after he posted that, I think after those after the shoot Texas at the school. Yeah. So that like, I think that really kind of refers to like, especially like being a military member. Like, I definitely kind of learned that while I was in the Air Force was like, Listen, no one's coming to save you. You've got to prepare for like the worst, basically. Yeah. So like, I did want to kind of talk to you a little bit about that. Like, as far as like, why did you post that? Like, how does that kind of cuz exactly like you said, man, it doesn't matter if your Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, whatever. I mean, at the end of the day, if

Unknown Speaker 24:44
you're on a independent duty, like embassy duty, and another Benghazi does happen, sure, they're gonna come get you in 13 to 20 hours, way after everything's gonna be done and over. So I

Unknown Speaker 25:00
As a, I was the operations and training officer for all three years, as well as the system detachment commander and a couple of attachments for my embassies. And it was that reality of no one's coming for us.

Unknown Speaker 25:15
I only have you and you only have me, I had people that I knew I would lock inside the room and not let them out because they would get us hurt. And I knew that there would people who would be with me till the end. And yeah, at the end of the day, everyone wants to live, no one's going to die for you. And those cops unfortunately proved, it furthers, I'm sorry to say, but those children, at the end of the day, people learn have to learn how to save themselves, if they cannot protect themselves. You cannot ask someone else to give up their life, especially in today's social status, structure, whatever. I don't know why. But it's just the reality we live in. So I believe I'm believing the Second Amendment. And I believe that we should have a militia that is completely independent of any organization. And I'm not saying go out there and do things. I'm saying, Train for first aid, if something bad happens, if, you know, someone comes up and approaches your son, or your daughter, my mom, you sat brevity words with us, because we used to walk home from school, you know, it's like, do you like the color purple? Of course, I love Barney, you know, there, we can get picked up. It's not that there was nothing like that back in the day. But that's the type of training that people should be prepared for. That's the type of stuff that they have to realize is everyone's responsible for their own safety and our nation. Unfortunately, not every good guy with a gun is going to be there. And not every guy with a gun is a good guy that is willing to put his life on the line to save innocence. I joined to protect innocent lives. A lot of people wear a badge for power. I learned in the military, that my Chevron's my rank when I became an NCO when I was a corporal. And I had Pratap power to protect people that was used as a shield to protect the weak and the innocent, not a spear to attack others and get ahead. Unfortunately, it's not Semper Fi. Always faithful anymore. It's simple. I and that is one of the reasons I left the military. And guess what? That's just the world. And once we come to the realization of it, we can stop having such a bad attitude and just try and do our best. Because

Unknown Speaker 27:31
honestly, isn't that world trying to do? I know that kind of sounds fake. But literally, that's what we're all here to do. Just our best. I believe we just should, it shouldn't hurt others while trying to get our accomplishments. Right. So yeah, I'm sorry. No, no, no. I mean, you kind of talked about, like, why you did you did separate but like, that's, uh, yeah, that's not the main reason at all, though. Yeah. I mean, is there like a specific moment that happened? Or like a specific, like, reason where you were like, Okay, I'm done with this. Like, when did that happen? Basically, I mean, in the Marines, you always kind of ask yourself, like, how did I end up here? What am I doing? Why am I out in the middle of the forest running? And, you know, twisting my ankle? Why am I doing all this? And it's just because I want to, I don't know, I just thought it was I just want I've always wanted to personally be the cool guy. You know, I grew up watching military movies. My dad, my stepdad call my dad as his army cat. So you know, my mom, she works security. So I, I inadvertently grew up liking that kind of stuff. But the main reason why I left and the reason that really got to me was in 2015, I was leaving Lisbon, Portugal, my regional security officer, my boss, Tanya Sears, she was like, Well, what are you going to do after you get out, I was like, Oh, I'm going to become a contractor. Just go overseas and keep doing it. She's like, your body's not going to be able to last forever. You might want to think about getting an education first and then go do that. And I was like, You're right, ma'am. And then I thought about it, and then standing on post for 12 hours, for the next two years, you know, eight to 12 hours depends on how much we have and what the chips are. But it just gives you an ample amount of time to think and came to the conclusion. She was right. I was smart enough. I just was lacking self confidence. I was smart enough to make it to the embassy duty at one point. And my first post I got to meet President Barack Obama while he was still serving. You know, like for a 21 year old. I don't think that's that bad. And I'm not trying to gloat or anything but I'm just trying to say I didn't really think I was smart at all. I didn't know one that I want to grew up with went to college, you know. So it was it was just something we didn't do. And having someone having someone smart believing me who went to Ohio State because I was really into wrestling. I am really into wrestling and Ohio State's a really good school. Alright, she believed in me and that's why I was

Unknown Speaker 30:00
Like okay, maybe I do need an education.

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