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 this is the American military Brett podcast. So the podcast today it's an interesting one, because every single guest I've had so far I've known the guest, you know, I've worked with them or whatever. But I've actually got a guest on today that I've been I've never met before, we only did like the email contact and the phone contact and whatnot. So Aaron is here today, and I'll just I'll let him introduce himself. So yeah, just tell people who you are and whatnot and what you do.

Unknown Speaker 1:06
Well, thank you for inviting me on the show. My name is airman Freddie, as we sit here at UNLV. I'm a graduate of the undergrad and Masters. I'm the current president of the you know, the veterans Alumni Club, which is vets who graduated from UNLV. And I've been in Las Vegas since 1998.

Unknown Speaker 1:25
I came here from Albuquerque, New Mexico. So I grew up in LA went to high school in rat tone, New Mexico, which is 15 miles from Colorado, beautiful, gorgeous little town, up in the mountains, 7000 feet elevation, a place I'll retire to here very soon. And when I had graduated high school, I, you know, I experienced the big city. And a lot of my friends that I went to school with had never left that small little town in Lawton, were still there. So I knew what was out there. And so I wanted to make sure that soon as I graduated, I got out of dodge, you know, and can always come back. And so my junior year, I was 16 years old. And I started that process to me, and a friend of mine went the buddy system to go the military and my whole family's, you know, Vietnam and World War Two, and so was his and our small little town.

Unknown Speaker 2:21
Everyone goes the military. So it's kind of what we do, most of them started that process. And when went into the Navy, and we'll talk about that here in a second. But currently, I'm a real estate agent here in Las Vegas. I'm a landscape designer and installer, I should say. And I've been very blessed with a lot of great careers, law enforcement education, been in gaming open up, you know, the Westin Hotel here, worked in restaurants and bars, property management, it was an airline management and everything. And it left Vegas for a couple years to go to Phoenix. And I've came back and been here ever since and is home. And so I've set on different boards just got done running for University Board of Regents, we didn't advance to the general election, but we shared our mission with everyone. And you can still get some things done from behind the scenes. So I'm a big hard rebel big time. military guy. And so thanks for having me on the show.

Unknown Speaker 3:24
Next, I want to ask because obviously, I don't know anything about naval basic training and technical training school. But one, one thing I just want to start with real quick, so I cannot swim. So I remember getting to Air Force, basic training, and I asked my recruiter before I was like, Is there any swimming? He's like, No, I don't think so. And I got, we got to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. And I saw this big pool next to where we all like have our dorms and whatnot. For basic training. I was thinking oh, crap, I hope they're gonna throw me in some water. This is going to be bad. But I can imagine in basic training, you experience a lot of water training, I'm assuming we Yeah, the Navy is

Unknown Speaker 4:04
had a lot of water training probably more than than anyone, right? Because because it's the navy or in you know the man overboard. And you know, you're could be in the water, right? I mean, we're around the water. So, yeah, we had a lot of people struggle with, you know, me growing up in LA and being on the beaches. I love to swim. So, you know, a lot of us had swimming pools, friends, and so that was that was easier for us. But for a lot of, you know, classmates that weren't around water that you're absolutely right, they struggled. And I remember, I remember two or three guys that didn't make it a after, you know, remedial you know, water training and swimming that no matter what they did, they just didn't get it and they couldn't get it and they just I remember three guys, they all loaded up halfway through boot camp and the guy kicked out, you know, because he couldn't swim. So, you know, do you need to swim in in the Navy, but you know if you go man overboard

Unknown Speaker 5:00
fishy on an aircraft carrier or any ship really? Obviously your vest inflates and all that kind of jazz. But if you don't know the basics, you know, then you're gonna drown Of course, right? Yeah, the bill the tread, I think treading water was the biggest thing more than anything wasn't like, you know, you're going to seal training where he had to do a million laps it was can you tread water keep your head above, you know, the water in case of emergency I think was the biggest thing you know, In that simplest task. A lot of people

Unknown Speaker 5:31
couldn't do it. And one of the guys that did fail, I said, Hey, what was Why was this such a disconnect? And he says, I never swim in my life. I didn't grow up around the swimming pool. And, you know, he's like, we just live in a not so great neighborhood. And so, you know, you just never been exposed to it. You know, I mean, and so Navy boot camp in 1993. Seems like yesterday, but it's obviously been some years. There used to be San Diego, Chicago in Orlando. All the women went to Orlando. And then Chicago, you'd go to Chicago based on where you live, right? If you were east of the Mississippi or up in that northeast parts, obviously you'd go to, you'd go to Great Lakes, you know, Michigan, and then our Chicago and then West Coast boys went to San Diego. So when I went in July of 1993 is actually is when I graduated five companies after us, they shut it down. San Diego Bootcamp for Navy was over. And that really was an amazing experience. Because as we are marching through the base, and it's gigantic, you know, there's things like empty buildings, dry empty vehicles. And normally it's just 1000s of boot campers as I remember one time we were marching around for a whole weekend didn't see anybody but ourselves because people are graduating and that was it. So we shut that down in the Navy. Now has everyone going to Great Lakes, it is integrated to where it's female and males. But so, one shot and that's it. Yeah, you know, we the thing about boot camp is he always tried to time it. Obviously, you were I think San Antonio, very human in II always try to time bootcamp around the weather. And obviously, they do that in Chicago, Great Lakes, you know, it's like a man going to summer where it's humid and not winter, we are shoveling snow. We were always blessed that San Diego had beautiful weather all year around, you know, and so the Marines were literally on the other side of the fence, and they are still in San Diego. And so we used to be out there playing basketball, and they'd be out there playing in the sand. And we'd always have a choice words, and it was actually a wood fence.

Unknown Speaker 7:38
They had a chain link fence. And then obviously, they didn't want to see each other and they put up this makeshift wood fence that you can lean on in and Dang it, you know, it could fall over if you lean. I mean, we could get into this if we wanted to. But

Unknown Speaker 7:52
so that was fine. You know, we would always yell back and forth and Marines and Navy they were all we're all in it together but

Unknown Speaker 8:00
okay, and so in boot camp and navy that was a

Unknown Speaker 8:04
it was pretty cool. They actually put us in these these rooms where they would actually light a fire. And they were Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta, and they were based on was electrical was, you know, gas. And, and it's pretty cool because they had a control booth where they were controlling the fires and they were real. Obviously, it was all makeshift, and we gear it up. And either we're using a triple F, which is two for electrical, right, a foam, regular water. And there's some other things in it. That week was pretty serious. It was no messing around. It was game on a couple of guys guys sent home for that one, too. They were scared to go into the room and put the fire out even though it was controlled. And so in the Navy, when you have a fire on the boat, you can imagine where how dangerous it can be right? It's not like there's only so many places you can go. So it's taken very, very seriously. So

Unknown Speaker 9:03
if you want me to keep going about the bootcamp, I mean I mean we well just curious about the like your technical training, like how that whole thing works. So in the Navy, they call it an A school, and that is your trade school. So depending on the trade, for example, if you want to be an air traffic controller, you have to sign up for six years because they have two years of training. A lot of guys will come out and gals will come out. e4, some will come out e five just out of their training. So here they are coming to the fleet. Nuclear those that go nuke I believe you have a six or an eight year enlistment. This you know they spend a lot of money on training. So a lot of people come out you know, II 45 out of their school and when you are in the Navy, soon as you're an e4, your supervisor, you are you can help to the E one to E threes out you know for polishing floors. They might say hey, you're the you know you're the senior low guy get in there but one

Unknown Speaker 10:00
To make ie five in the Navy, you or your supervisor, you're not doing any of that kind of stuff. So

Unknown Speaker 10:08
in the schooling is and then when you go, when I when I enlisted, it was a two year enlistment and actually had three years. So I did two years and then I extended for a year, almost a year. So I wouldn't what they call on designated means you don't really have any control where you're going, the perk of it being Hey, we'll give you two years obviously benefits for life, but we're not going to give you the liberty of you know where you're going. And so airmen seamen are firemen. And I chose airman I wanted to work on the flight deck, obviously, Top Gun is why I joined the Navy and in a lot of people, so when I went to, we had an airman school and it was soon as you graduate boot camp, it was literally down the street from boot camp, obviously more relaxed. We did that for we did that for 30 days. And that was learning the basics of you know, the flight deck and aircraft and you know, the codes and safety maneuvering so

Unknown Speaker 11:07
to prepare you for the fleet. And so that's what I did. Ours was a crash course relief of what it was Airedales handled aircraft type stuff, Fireman obviously fire. And then when you got your papers, you could be sent literally to anything around the world. And I know some people who got some pretty crappy letters have to report to it's like, because they were on designated, you know, I was very blessed to get assigned to a aircraft carrier, which is why I went in the Navy and was stationed Alameda, which is my Oakland, California. So by me being from LA, and essentially Albuquerque, New Mexico, you know, I knew that I can come and see family and I was close versus some friends. Their first duty station was Japan.

Unknown Speaker 11:59
We'll get into your assignments now and kind of talk about those. Because you said you were on like aircraft carriers for the most part, right? Yeah. When I got out of bootcamp, I got papers to we call getting papers to the USS Carl Vinson. Okay. Normally, aircraft carriers are named after presidents. And Carl Vinson, I believe was a senator. And I want to say Indiana

Unknown Speaker 12:23
338 years was on in and it was all a military committees and a huge military funding. So it was named after him. And that was in Alameda, California, which is a suburb of Oakland, right? And yes, that was my first duty station. And so what's cool about that is they were doing what we call workups. That is training up before we go on deployment, which is a Westpac or a metal training on the east coast. So we were doing workups and they wanted to in order for us to go on our Westpac we had to get qualified, right as new blue shirts tying up the planes and all that and there was probably about 12 of us and they needed us. So we had the opportunity to actually fly on the boat. And we got in what we call the cod, which is a male, a male carrier plane, it's nothing fancy, it's real simple plane. And they

Unknown Speaker 13:17
so we they picked us up in San Diego, in North Island, which is all we're all squadrons are and a load is up and we literally were up in the air. And I remember looking out the window and I see this this little ship, I look like a little matchbox car. And I thought oh my god, we're gonna, we're gonna actually fly on that little tiny thing. And then as we make our way down, and we got to land on the plane on the boat, and it's over in like, literally four seconds, you know, you're coming down, you hit the resting gear, it stops, it's and then from the time you hit that arresting gear, you were off that plane and inside within like, seven, eight minutes. It's really fast. And so, you know, we were again, we're off the coast of San Diego. And so for three weeks, we were the new boots, you know, and we

Unknown Speaker 14:10
you know, as far as training, yeah, it's like, get on the flight deck and start working. And there's a lot going on, you know, planes are churning and burning and they always say that working on a carrier is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. And and once you get up there, when it's live, as we call it, you can you can see that, you know, your head is gonna be on a swivel, there's no time for games or joking. It is all business and so that was it. And then we also got to if you want it to like I was never big in the painting, when when the ship is docked, you know, we painted and met wax floors, like all that stuff is true. We did that. I chose to as much as I could, to not do that and get on right next to us was Abraham Lincoln. And so I'd go on to Abe Lincoln and do some training with them. There's like, hey, they're getting ready for their workout.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
So we're going to take off for three weeks. Let me go with you guys. A lot of guys didn't want to go on the flight deck to work 18 hour days, I'm like I'd rather be there than, you know, waxing hallway. So I did a lot of that. And Abe Lincoln went to a firefighter training school in Lemoore, California.

Unknown Speaker 15:15
And out in the middle of nowhere by Fresno, and so we got to do high impact aircraft, firefighting. And we actually had, you know, rural planes that they would light on fire and went to go put them out how to how to get, you know, the pilots out of the cockpit, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And I absolutely loved it. And it was the best two weeks. And I had fun doing it. I love you know, I volunteer for training, and what can I do to like, not paint, you know, and give me another boats. And so, we stayed busy. Yeah. And so, as far as our deployments, every two years, you have to do a six month deployments. And so not everyone depends on what your job was. And we would go out to sea. And we visited a countries, we always end up in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea. We were there for geez, I don't know exactly, but I want to say like,

Unknown Speaker 16:10
maybe 92 straight days. And I believe that after the 90th day or somewhere in there.

Unknown Speaker 16:18
They called beer day, in no matter what your age was, they would give you if you got two beers. And they were flying on all this, you've got Budweiser and Bud Light and they're the helos are flying on pallets of beer. It's a coolest thing back then we had roll up cameras and you know, got picture somewhere or the ship would pull up next to us a supply ship and they just saw nothing but beer coming across. And that was pretty cool. You know, we a lot of us snuck extra beers. But you know, we celebrate being out to sea for so long. When we're out to sea, it was very easily when we're doing workups it's a little more relaxed. Pilots are working on their hours, new pilots, we're working on our qual safety and training and trying to navigate and figure out how to do everything and cross rate into you know, driving the tractors which is parked in the plains, you get promotion to being a director. And then we also have crashed and salvage which is the aircraft emergency, basically the fire department of the flight deck. So you learn how to do that and getting rotation. And so to prepare for your deployment. And so when you want to see for deployment it is it's on you know and all jokes aside, and it's long hours and terrible weather in Japan, we had 30 foot 35 foot swells.

Unknown Speaker 17:43
We go out into fleet carriers, the mothership and we have you know, supply ships frigates. And

Unknown Speaker 17:50
you know, I don't think they're battleships anymore. I think destroyers were in our group, you'd look over and see him getting slammed with all the water, you know, they're actually wearing harnesses and seatbelts in waters like going over, you know, the boat, and we have a slow row. And so yeah, we're working, you know, it's,

Unknown Speaker 18:09
it was a 1993 And so it was ours to say spring of early 94. And I had crossed the equator before he turned 18. So that was pretty cool. And it was late late fall, early spring. And so we get Liberty you know, and we got to go to Singapore and Japan and Hong Kong a lot of countries do not want nuke anywhere near the land. So we had to deliver the boats and so on. Sometimes it take you 3040 minutes to to get on we a lot of guys who stayed behind that beautiful woman, especially in Australia, one of them was a good friend and didn't want to come back home. So

Unknown Speaker 18:49
when I when I got out, I went to the reserves. I was living in Albuquerque, and I did my reserve one year in Naval Air Station Dallas, which is which really was has been a Reserve Base since World War Two or a worker base I should say, and there was nothing going on there. We would fly from Albuquerque to El Paso and go there and my time we got flooded. We literally had a day. Me me me working on the flight deck and now being assigned to land

Unknown Speaker 19:21
basically played Nintendo for a year. And I got real tired of that because I wanted to work and I would volunteer for stuff again. I think one weekend I went and mowed the grass because I wanted to work I couldn't stand sitting idle. So they closed Dallas down everywhere I went they closed it down and closed San Diego. They closed down Alameda, they closed down Dallas. I moved to Vegas there wasn't a really good reserve unit here. I'd have had to go to LA or San Diego. I wasn't really willing to do that drive every weekend. Or one weekend a month you know and I just was like, it just was time to get out you know and I wish I would have stayed in

Unknown Speaker 19:59
and

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Uh, that was it, you know?

Unknown Speaker 20:03
And like some friends that stayed in. So you want like more than fill in deployment stuff like what? Well, we won't get into that just yet. But like, just to go back to the assignments because I'm, I'm curious with, because in the in the Air Force, right, we have just a base that we go to and we just we just go on there but like, with the Navy, do you like live on the aircraft carrier? Or do you go home after work? Are you? Great, great, great question. So, you know, yeah, so you get a lot of the single guys, you know, we didn't have any children. We weren't married, we just stayed on the boat because it was free.

Unknown Speaker 20:35
Yeah, they would give you a housing allowance. Was it was it called BAC a or whatever it is? The loop. But a lot of the guys that were married with kids, right, of course, they'll give you housing allowance, and then a lot of them lived off base. Yes. And then. So when the boats docked, we are preparing it for the next deployment, which obviously is two years away. And a lot of the civilian contractors come on, and they're really welding and finishing stuff and all that. So

Unknown Speaker 21:04
we, yeah, there was there was guys who, you know, for three months, I think four or five of us all rented a house in, you know, in Fremont, California, and did that. So you can do that. But we, to me, the boat was convenient, you know, you know, parking your car and walking to the carrier from the parking lot was quite the hike.

Unknown Speaker 21:30
We didn't have cell phones back then we had pay phones, we had probably about 50 paid phone booths lined up. So for a lot of people when they got a house, the convenience of a landline, right parking by your front door.

Unknown Speaker 21:43
If I knew more about it, I guess or put more thought into it, I guess I probably would have done that the whole time. But the core of my buddies that I hung out with, we just decided to stay on the boat. And that it was cool. You know, we had the boys in the boat and would play cards together. Or when we'd go out, we'd roll out together. And you know, I had my vehicle up there. And so we did that. But yeah, you can you can live off base. And then for the officers depending on your rank, they had base housing. So you know, our base was very big, like I was saying we had two carriers, 13 ships, tons of regular US aircraft squadrons, you know, chin hooks and all that. So

Unknown Speaker 22:24
there was a lot of housing on base, but usually it was four Oh fours or higher, and beautiful houses. So we had that. And we also had a like a Motel Six on the base. Okay, it wasn't called that, but it was the same thing. And so,

Unknown Speaker 22:40
you know, the shore patrol, which is the Navy's version of MPs would, would always come there because that's where our parties were, you know, we were able to invite civilian gals and

Unknown Speaker 22:50
the Navy preferred that we were on base actually, obviously, underage drinking was a big thing. And so they kept an eye on it, but they would rather have us do it there than somewhere else and get in trouble. And so that was it now living on a aircraft carrier, if anybody ever has a goes to San Diego, the USS Midway, which is where a lot of my shipmates they decommissioned the Midway and is now a museum. Okay? I highly, highly recommend if you ever go to San Diego, you visit the USS Midway, it is it is a fascinating to see how we live.

Unknown Speaker 23:25
And so when I went to the Midway years after I got out, I wanted there's a young college kid was doing the tour. And once once he found out that I was on a boat carrier, very similar. I took over the tour and then had it been about 40 people 4050 people and I'm talking on the microphone and showing everyone where we lived, you know, in the birthing area

Unknown Speaker 23:49
where I slept was when you're when you're a new Iwan right you are always a top bunk and literally where the tail hook would hit the deck is where I slept.

Unknown Speaker 24:03
And you know when you are young and so you can sleep through anything right and as you get older it gets difficult but when that tail hook would slam on the deck in the know the noise was was pretty overbearing

Unknown Speaker 24:16
you know at first it was impossible to sleep but you got used to it after a while right and so kind of helped to sleep. But we slept in very tight quarters Yeah, we didn't have dorms we were

Unknown Speaker 24:27
you know, a middle bunk top and the bottom in you hoped hygiene was a good thing with your shipmates. And in some times it wasn't and everyone would have their dirty socks out and underwear and he got pretty disgusting and that's why a lot of guys went out and got their own, you know, apartments and stuff but so it was it had its challenges. We all could not get up and out at the same time. You know, we would always have that group. It has some E fours in there and and in some E fives and obviously a higher rank guy

Unknown Speaker 25:00
out first, and then you know, it followed him. But it was, you know, when you're out to see and you don't have a whole lot and guys were lonely missing their families, we didn't have Skype, we had snail mail and all that, you know, being close to each other, you know, we relied on each other for mental support, of course. And so

Unknown Speaker 25:17
you know, and I still talk to a lot of the guys that I lived with, and we share those stories and, you know, it's such a brotherhood about it. And, you know, we made it, we made it work, everyone gets a Dear John letter and upsetting and I remember one one of my shipmates lost his mother out to sea and couldn't do anything about it, you know, we're on our way to Hong Kong, and, you know, and so, he found out through a messenger, essentially, you know, so, but anyhow, deployments now are a lot different. You know, like I said, You got Skype you have,

Unknown Speaker 25:50
you know, the guys now they can talk to the wives, you know, and family, like, daily, you don't even need to be in clear across the country. And it's like, you're never gone. There were there to be times where, you know, we wouldn't hear from anyone for 30 days. And it was a form of a letter. And so,

Unknown Speaker 26:09
to me, I like that, you know, I knew my family was safe, right? If you weren't getting pulled aside, everyone was safe. You know, there was us in the boys, but I get it, you know, guys have families, they missed the kids and all that stuff. But so doing doing a deployment now, I think in any of the branches, I even had friends that were special forces, pretty late that we're allowed to, you know, in Iraq and Afghanistan, with with their phones, even big antenna phones that were literally calling, you know, like, hours away from a major firefight, you know, fight and, and we're able to communicate, and I thought man in the middle of nowhere Afghanistan, and you can make a call, you know, the mean, we're back in a day, you know, you go on deployment, and in for a whole year, you want to hear from nobody, yeah, you're gonna get mail in the middle of nowhere. So anyhow, but

Unknown Speaker 27:01
that's it for deployment stuff.

Unknown Speaker 27:03
But lastly, I just want to kind of talk about why you separated, you kind of got into it a little bit bit. They're talking about how you fulfilled your contract, basically. So that was, that was why you Yeah, I did a two year enlistment and then I extended a little bit. So when I went in, it was two years active. Six years, two years active four years inactive. Inactive reserve means that you don't have to report every weekend, or every month, it just means that someone's going down to the first ones get called back. And you have to go right, so I did the two years and then an act. And then I chose volunteering to do a year of active reserve. And thought multiple times that you know, of going back in and I look at it now I probably should have you known. But anyhow. So yeah, once your contract is over, you know, you fulfilled your contract, you can be honorably discharged, or you can reenlist. And so, that's what I did. I did my time and got out honorably. And then you know, life starts. Yeah, yeah. Was there was there like a specific moment, though? Was there a specific thing that made you just want to, you know, separate? Or was it just my contract ran out, you know, we I,

Unknown Speaker 28:18
my shipmates that I went in, you know, years ago and wrong, you know, middle aged adults now is that the Navy doesn't have NCOs as Air Force NCOs.

Unknown Speaker 28:29
The Navy doesn't, and there's probably something they really should consider is because, you know, nobody told us we can make a career out of this. And I'm talking like, 567 of my buddies that we still stay in contact, is that, you know, we always hear of other branches retiring at young ages, you know, and so, we, we didn't we didn't know that we didn't know that you can make a career out of it. They didn't really push it in and really talk about it. Again, this is before 911. So probably wanted us to get out. And so, you know, reenlistment I did ask about re enlisting us today. If I wanted to stay in my mom was,

Unknown Speaker 29:07
had cancer and I knew that I at some point, I needed to come home and take care of that. And so that was probably my biggest reason of have nots, reenlisting for me, I found out my next duty station was going to be in Yokosuka, Japan.

Unknown Speaker 29:22
I didn't have a problem being in Japan, but knowing that my mom was sick and I at any given time, you know, I was gonna have the back to take care of that. I didn't want to be clear across the world. So what is the ultimate end goal? For me?

Unknown Speaker 29:38
That's a great question. You know, because I like to do a bunch of different things, or I've always had two or three different jobs, you know, so we'll see, you know, right now, I'm a contractor. I do real estate, and, you know, maybe get into corporate housing or Airbnb, but, you know, maybe get back in public service in some way. I'm not getting any young

Unknown Speaker 30:00
You know, so we'll see as you get into more things, as you, you know, get invited to more nonprofit boards and you meet different people, there's always that, you know,

Unknown Speaker 30:13
you know, envelope of, of opportunity to open, you know, I'm saying and so I'm still young, I'm 45 will be 46 years old. And so

Unknown Speaker 30:23
we'll see, you know, I love military. I wish I knew more about government contracting when I was younger, just didn't know. And definitely wanna pursue that in a heartbeat, you know? So, hey, man, everyday, he just flipped over to the car and see what it gives you. And we'll see. Yeah, cool. Well, yeah, just want to thank you, Aaron, for coming on the podcast, like very interesting insight. You know, like I said, I've never really spoken to many Navy people. So thanks for having me. Thank you. Yeah, go Navy.

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