Global Recon

GRP 75- Chantel Taylor and I begin this week's podcast by discussing some of the recent events taking place in the past week to include the U.S. dropping the largest nonnuclear bomb in its arsenal the MOAB, we also touched on some of the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and some other topics.

Our special guest for this week's podcast is former British Special Forces Operator Jason Carl Fox. "Foxy" spent 20 years as a Royal Marine with the last 10 serving as a Special Boat Service commando. Foxy and I met up here in NYC and had an in-person interview. We discussed his background and career in the Royal Marines as well as his personal struggles with PTSD, and separation from the military. He's been very active lately working on television in the U.K. as well as anchoring programs to help veterans transition and teaching mindset and team building. Below is an excerpt:

Foxy: I did multiple deployments predominately to Afghanistan. Everything from counter-narcotics to going after the big hitters on the opposite side. I was also involved in a high-profile hostage rescue operation. That was my last tour of Afghanistan and it was a defining few months for me. Within two days of the beginning of our tour, we went on this hostage rescue. The guy was a New York Times reporter. We were getting shot at in the sky while flying in for a good six minutes. You could see the Chinook behind us getting shot at. You could see air burst RPG's going off. I remember sitting there with a friend of mine and me I thought I was holding my knee and hurting it, but I was holding his and he was holding mine (laughs). We were willing the helicopter to land so we can gain some control over our destiny. We landed and ran off the back and into a crazy firefight. I was a senior guy by this time with multiple tours. I ran about 50 meters and dived into a ditch. The emotion must have been a split second. I remember thinking I wanted to be back at home. I reflected on that moment a lot. What did it mean? We were successful that night but lost a teammate.

Introduction speech by Winston Churchill

Global Recon:

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Jason Carl Fox:

Instagram: Jason_Carl_Fox

Twitter: JasonFox1976

Chantel Taylor:

Instagram: Mission_Critical

Facebook: Battleworn

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 74-Co hosting for this week's podcast is former British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. We have a special guest on a retired Army Special Forces Green Beret named Mike. Mike served as a Tanker in Iraq where he first came across Special Forces. He knew right away that this was something he would like to be a part of someday. He had a growing young family so when his contract was up he got out of the Army. He eventually went back in and became a Green Beret until he was injured and medically retired.

As he was retiring he was approached by an organization that recruits personnel from the Special Operations community in order to hunt down and put a stop to child sexual exploitation here in the United States. For Mike it was a no brainer. He was in. Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

Mike: After I was told I wouldn't be able to be do Green Beret stuff anymore and I could either take a desk job, or medically retire. As I was in the retirement process I got approached by someone. He told me about the Hero Child Rescue Corps. It's recruiting veterans from the Special Operations community who are wounded or disabled. Are you interested? It was to fight child sexual exploitation. I jumped on it. I declined other opportunities to make a lot of money working overseas. I knew this was a once in a lifetime deal. It was to save kids. Now I have 3 kids. Once I retired I went to training for it.

I do computer forensics fighting child sexual exploitation.

John: Its important work. You hear about these kinds of things and immediately you think of places like Africa, but this is happening in the States. I think Americans aren't as aware of it as they should be.

Mike: I was in a class one time. They pulled up a map of the United States. It was a live feed of child pornography being downloaded. Within 15 minutes the entire map was red. You can live in the nicest neighborhood, and you wont know there's pedophile’s in that same area. People in these areas producing it.

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www.goruck.com

GRP 73- Back on for this week's podcast are two Green Berets one who is a first generation Special Forces solider, Mike Stahl who served two tours of duty in Vietnam with his first tour on an A-Team, and second tour running recon with CCN (Command and Control North) as a MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group) One Zero, or Team Leader.

Our second guest is Bryan Meyers, A Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant with 8 combat tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bryan and a fellow Green Beret named Loren Schofield have started a campaign called "Raise the Black" in creating products to sell with the returns going out to help the families and warriors of the ISOF (Iraqi Special Operations Forces) who elements of the Army Special Forces trained and stood up during the beginning of the Iraq war. ISOF has gone on hundreds of combat operations with American Special Forces Teams during the worst of the fighting in Iraq against Al-Qaeda, and the Shia militias of Sadr City. ISOF has single handily stopped ISIS from advancing on Baghdad. They have been fighting non stop for over 10 years. We discussed the similarities of the Army Special Forces first generations and todays warriors. We talked unconventional warfare and what it takes to defeat these radical groups. Below is an excerpt:

John: I mentioned earlier the book "Hammer Head Six" written by Forces Captain Ronald Fry. They laid out step by step how to defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan. Its proven. The battle space owners are usually Officers from the infantry. A full bird colonel or a 1-star general is not going to listen to a Special Forces Captain even though he's an induvial who has trained for years and mastered this type of warfare. It seems like the people who know this type of warfare are not allowed to lead the way.

Bryan Myers: Just propaganda alone America has not set out to win a war since WW2. We are not fighting to win. You can see it from propaganda that is allowed from the DOD, and Military at the time. "Can you not fight in the war? save your grease. We can use it to kill Nazi's." Let me do what I need to do and I will give you the insight. We had literal transmissions on radio from Mullah Omar from 3rd Special Forces Group of us killing so many during Operation Medusa these commanders in Pakistan wouldn't even answer the phones. They're like I don't want none of that bro.

Mike Stahl:

www.trickymisfit.com

Raise The Black:

https://www.gofundme.com/raise-the-black

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/03/24/raise-the-black-former-u-s-special-forces-fundraise-for-the-families-of-fallen-iraqi-comrades/?utm_term=.bbe4af41435c

Bryan Myers:

@twimcf for IG

https://m.facebook.com/theworldismycountryfoundation/

@the_bearded_bryan Instagram

@thebeardedbryan Twitter

Global Recon:

www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram

BlackOpsMatter- Instagram

Mission_Critical – Instagram

IgRecon- Twitter

Introduction Speech by President Ronald Reagan reading the Medal of Honor Citation for MSG Roy Benavidez a Special Forces Green Beret who was a member of MACV-SOG.

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 72-Raise The Black. On for this week's podcast are two retired Special Forces Green Berets. Bryan Myers, and Loren Schofield both have multiple combat deployments into Afghanistan and Iraq. The Army Special Forces which Bryan and Loren were apart of were responsible for standing up an Iraqi Counter Terrorism Force early on in the war. ISOF (Iraqi Special Operations Forces) has contributed in a tremendous way to the fight against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and now ISIS. The ICTF (Iraqi Counter Terrorism Force) are a group of battle hardened Iraqi patriots who don't identify themselves as belonging to any particular tribe, or religious sect. They consider them selves Iraqi's and fight for their country. This is important as this region has been embroiled in religious and sectarian violence for many years.

Raise The Black is a campaign started by Bryan and Loren to give back to the families of fallen ICTF Operators as they have been fighting constantly for over a decade. The ICTF is single handily responsible for stopping the ISIS advance on Baghdad, and they now lead the offensive to rid Iraq of the terrorist group. Here is the link to the Go Fund Me Account where you can contribute. They plan on moving away from the GoFundMe, but are using it to kick start the campaign.

https://www.gofundme.com/raise-the-black

Below is an excerpt from the podcast.

John: You guys spent a lot of time in Sadr city(Iraq) working with the ICTF. Can you share a story with the audience of your time there?

Bryan Meyers: It was a brutal time. It was decided to wall it off with these big tall Texas barriers. They wanted to limit the access to this dangerous area. You were never going to have issues getting in. It was getting out that was the issue. This one night we went in to hit a target. We got our guy and are heading out. I'm manning a .50 cal on our Stryker at this point. An IED had gone off. I look up and i see the Abrams Tank hauling ass. It becomes apparent very quickly that we're missing a Bradley. We went from urgency to a panic. We call to an Apache Gunship. We're like hey man can you fly over Sadr and check if you see a rouge Bradley. In the chaos this Bradley had taken off. Just like a typical male instead of asking for directions they just kept driving. They ended up being as deep as you can get. All i can imagine is all of Sadr's army thinking this has got to be a setup. We were about to have an international incident. We linked up with the Bradley and began our exfil. We had an Abrams tank drive over one of the barriers and decided to exfil that way. The AO commander was pissed.

Raise The Black:

https://www.gofundme.com/raise-the-black

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/03/24/raise-the-black-former-u-s-special-forces-fundraise-for-the-families-of-fallen-iraqi-comrades/?utm_term=.bbe4af41435c

Loren Schofield: @loren_notaseal Instagram

@SpecialForces_INC Instagram

@Lorenkschofield Twitter

@spec_Forces_INC Twitter

Bryan Myers: @the_bearded_bryan Instagram

@thebeardedbryan Twitter

Global Recon:

www.globalrecon.net

IgRecon – Instagram

BlackOpsMatter- Instagram

Mission_Critical – Instagram

IgRecon- Twitter

GRP 71- Co-hosting for this podcast is Chantel Taylor. We have U.S. Army veteran Derick Carver on the podcast. Derick served as a Captain with the 82nd Airborne division. He was hit by a rocket during an ambush in Afghanistan. We discuss the transition process for him, leadership, and him becoming a better person after losing his left leg. He's an advocate for Medical Marijuana use for veterans. Derick is also the world strongest adaptive athlete.

Earlier today 3 people were killed in a terrorist attack in London. We'd like to send our condolences to the family of the fallen. One police officer was killed, and the attacker was subsequently shot and killed. This is being called the worst attack in over 10 years in the United Kingdom. Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

Derick Carver: I enlisted in 2005, I commissioned in 2007.

Chantel Taylor: Oh you were an officer?

DC: See. Even the British enlisted have that same "Oh well, go fuck yourself, sir" I went to Ranger School. Went to Ft. Bragg with the 82nd Airborne. I was opening a school in Afghanistan in 2010. We were ambushed and I got hit with a 107-millimeter rocket. It blew through my left leg completely into my right leg. I'm missing part of my index finger, my left elbow, and then two of my fingers on my right hand are fused. My left leg is amputated all the way up. Right leg's got like 50 percent soft tissue damage. I have about 300 pieces of shrapnel from my knee to my hip. Its in my arm and face. Especially since I'm losing some weight it's more noticeable. I'm like ribbed for your pleasure. I've pulled 7.62 rounds out. I've pulled pieces as big as a lighter out. It's crazy the shit that falls out of you when you get hit by a rocket.

Some people say hey you're lucky. There were seven of them and it was daisy chained into a complex ambush. Soldiers died. I got wounded. It was a bad day at work. I told my girlfriend I don't even remember what my left leg looked like.

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GRP 70- On for this week's podcast is retired Army veteran, Karolyn Smith. Karolyn was an MP (Military Police) who deployed to Iraq in 2004. She'd lost some of her closest friends in combat and survived several IED explosions while on security patrols. After getting wounded during one of these explosions she got out of the Army and became a security contractor for close to a decade. Karolyn struggled with PTSD, and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) for a long time and was unable to receive the help she needed from the VA. Michael Schiltz a well-known combat wounded Marine told her about a program at UCLA called Operation MEND.

Folks in Liberal Hollywood donate millions of dollars to this top tier program which take care of our warfighters with surgeries paid for, travel cost to California paid for, and continuing care post surgery all paid for and free of charge to the warfighter. Our second article has been published in the newly revamped article section on our website. Written by Gold Star Wife Alexandra McClintock. Alexandra's husband Matthew was killed in action last year in Afghanistan. Matthew is a Green Beret with multiple combat rotations and died protecting his wounded teammate. Alexandra details what it was like to learn of his death as well as some of the struggles she's faced. Here is a link to the article: http://www.globalrecon.net/articles/2017/3/14/hxi6jb8jd1j4m4g6ztc8h94udbp170

Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

Karolyn Smith: Iraq was pretty bad. Everything was a daily struggle. IED's, car bombs. September 7th, 2004 my Lieutenant and I were dismounted and a sniper shot him in the face and killed him. He died right next to me. Lieutenant Tim Price with the 127th MP's. He After that you become a different person. As a woman, i had to learn to compartmentalize. April 15th of 2005 a fuel tanker transport needed an MP convoy. A shaped charge was on the back of a light pole. It blew right threw the blast shield of my SAW. I knew that there were things that were wrong, but at that point in time, i just wanted to go back to Germany.

I'm trying to give one veteran something that they can use. We're all closely related because we all served. It's our oath to each other that we have to uphold. I'm open about how suicidal I was. There was nowhere for me to go. I thought how pissed off would LT be at me if I took that way out. His father, his mother, his brother would kill for him to just be in pain and have a bad day. You don't ever want to disappoint your buddies. You have to take one more step. That's your oath to everyone who didn't come home.

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Any questions, or comments send an email to [email protected]

Keep up with Karolyn Smith at http://www.3pawsup.com/

Introduction speech by General Colin Powell

Introduction music provided by Caspian. Song title is Gone in Bloom and Bough.

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 69-The Terrorist Whisperer |Iraqi Military CSM Jasim| Counter Terrorism

GRP 69-This episode is co-hosted by Chantel Taylor. We have the honor of having the youngest Command Sergeant Major in Iraqi Military history on the show, Hamody Jasim. CSM Jasim was recruited by U.S. Intelligence after saving an American Military officer who was nearly abducted by al-Qaeda. His intelligence information changed the battle for the Marines in the Fallujah/Ramadi area by taking out one of al-Qaeda’s main operatives. On this episode, he shared several stories of his time in Iraq.

We are proud to announce that our articles section is fully up and running. We have a special group of veteran writers. Our first article went up last night written by my friend retired Australian SAS Major Dr. Dan Pronk. Be sure to check it out at www.globalrecon.net/articles. Sign up to receive email updates where we will keep you up to date with what we have going on, and information on products we will have available in collaboration with Special Operations veterans. Below is an excerpt from the episode.

CSM Hamody Jasim: I was sent on a few missions with the first Iraqi Divisions. I was sent to Bagdad. We went on a mission to recover the bodies of 25 dead Iraqi military recruit’s. The terrorist was coordinating with the Bus driver who had taken them into Haifa Street. They were all executed. I took about 30 of my soldiers. We had pick up trucks to load the bodies up. The terrorist aim was to capture Iraqi soldiers alive and behead them on TV. We drove into Haifa Street. It is normally a very busy street. It was like a ghost town that day. We immediately felt that something was wrong. In 2004 this was probably the most dangerous 2 miles in the world. I told my commander something doesn’t look right about this. The plan was to load the bodies and leave as soon as possible. We were ambushed. They had a sniper up in a tall building for anyone who got out of the initial kill zone. We were there for about an hour and 45 minutes. Our QRF left the Iraqi base to come support us. They immediately hit an IED in Haifa Street.

Most of us ran out of ammo. It took an American unit about an hour to get to us. We had 9 soldiers left by that time. I was shot in the knee. I had a shrapnel would above my right eye. That day will probably be the worst day of my life. Losing my guys. I slept next to these guys. One of my best friends was shot by the sniper trying to recover one of our soldiers. It was rough. My Platoon commander was captured alive, and as I was leaving I saw his body was beheaded.

Check out the new and improved article section:

www.globalrecon.net/articles

Command Sergeant Major Hamody Jasim:

https://www.theterroristwhisperer.com

Chantel Taylor:

Facebook-Battleworn

Instagram: Mission_Critical

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Battleworn-Chantelle-Taylor/dp/1532003854/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488418274&sr=8-1&keywords=battleworn

Introduction audio: American Military Officers/ General David Petraus/ Intelligence Officers talking about Hamody Jasim

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 68- We have a very special episode for you this week. Co-hosting is British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. Our special guest is Johnny Walker. Johnny is an Iraqi who served with the Navy SEAL Teams in Iraq for a 6-year period during the height of the Iraq war. He worked as an interpreter going on over 1000 combat operations during his operational service. We discussed his upbringing in Mosul, how he ended up working with Naval Special Warfare. Johnny shared a few stories during his time with the SEALs. We discussed terrorism in the region and the proxy war that is currently being fought in Iraq and Syria.

My good friends at the Global Surgical Medical Support Group who have been on the podcast previously have been doing incredible work providing top tier surgical support for communities battling against ISIS. From very reliable sources we now know that critically injured US personnel on an intelligence collection deployment in Iraq would not have survived if it wasn't for the swift intervention of GSMSG trauma surgeons. They were able to stop otherwise lethal hemorrhaging and other severe injuries by providing Role 4 level care right at the tip of the spear. They were also able to return the less critically injured US personnel to service right away after medically clearing them in the field. This is probably a first in history that a US-based non-profit humanitarian organization provided life-saving surgery in an austere environment that saved the lives of US service members and personnel. One way you can support them is by buying one of their few remaining T-shirts from their website at www.GSMSG.org/shop. If you insert promo code "IGRecon" you will get 20% off your order. So if you want to directly save US lives. If you want to support the only nonprofit group in history to be there at the tip of the spear saving American lives, then help the good guys at GSMSG out. Lastly, they are always recruiting SOF veterans, medics, nurses and physicians. Go check out their website and do something for our boys downrange. Below is an excerpt from the podcast:

Johnny Walker: I went to the base and met with one of the officers. He says you have to be careful. I said why whats up? He says the terrorist killed an interpreter with the same name was me. What he didn't know was I was heading to the base and an assassination attempt was made on me by a foreign terrorist. I saw a guy with a long beard driving a car with a male in his 20's as the passenger. In our tradition this is unusual. We always respect the religious man by driving the car and taking care of him. So I assumed the worst case scenario was playing out. I was ahead of them in my car and I pressed the break and they drove passed me. The passenger pulled out a pistol and shot me. I stopped completely. I took my AK-47, shot and killed both of them. I started to yell Allah Akbar those guys work with the Americans they are interpreters. The Iraqi Police came and conducted an investigation with the results of those investigations were sent to the American base. So they thought I was killed.

John: After you killed these two guys you made it seem like they were working for the Americans in order to get out of there right?

Johnny Walker: Yes.

Click the link below to support the Global Surgical Medical Support Group. Enter the code “IgRecon” which is my Instagram handle to receive a 20 percent discount.

http://www.gsmsg.org/shop

Johnny Walker’s book:

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Name-Johnny-Extraordinary-Everything/dp/0062267566/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488418317&sr=1-1&keywords=johnny+walker+book

Chantel Taylor:

Facebook-Battleworn

Instagram: Mission_Critical

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Battleworn-Chantelle-Taylor/dp/1532003854/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488418274&sr=8-1&keywords=battleworn

Introduction audio: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 67-Back on the podcast for this week's episode is Michael Rodriguez a former Army Green Beret Medic (18 Delta). He sits on President George W. Bush's Military Service Initiative Advisory Council which engages in a wide range of activities that support veterans. Last but not least he's the Chief Ambassador for the Green Beret Foundation. On with us is a friend of Mikes a former 18 Delta Mark Belden. Mark has an interesting story with a background in mixed martial arts. We talk TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), Mike share's a story of when he treated an infant over in Afghanistan, and Mark shares a story of a time when he got into a hand to hand combat situation with a high-value target in Iraq.

My good friend Chantel Taylor served in combat with junior combat medic named Mike Lamb in the British Army. Chantel was the senior medic on that kinetic rotation into Southern Afghanistan. Mike went on to get attached to British Special Forces and served as a Medic with the SAS. He recently lost his battle with cancer at the age of 32. Below is a link to the Gofundme campaign used to raise money for his young family. I encourage anyone who can to contribute to help out this warrior's wife and child during these difficult times. https://www.gofundme.com/for-the-family-of-mike-lamblamby

Below is an excerpt from the show:

John: Mark can you share a deployment story with the audience?

Mark Belden: This isn't something I'm proud of, but it happened. We were on a mission in Iraq. We knew this guy was a bad cat killed a lot of coalition, and American forces. We got the lead on him. We caught him sleeping on the roof. He was like 300 plus pounds. Heavyweight lifter. We double cuffed him with flex cuffs. The interrogator called me in to stay with him for a second. The interpreter was standing in the back. He was about 2 feet from me. Stone cold look in his eyes. He said something to the terp. He said you might as well kill me now because I'm not going to talk. I said ok whatever man, I’m just here to hang out with you. He took a huge breath and snapped both of his flex cuff's. He charged at me. I think it was a left hook that immediately caught him. He lifted me up. A 45 second battle ensued. One of the guys came into the room and pulled em out. The guy ended up dying. I was later investigated for it. I was in a top shape. A one-minute fight for my life put a lot of things into perspective.

Sergeant First Class Michael Rodriguez:

www.greenberetfoundation.org

www.bushcenter.org

Intro audio: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 66- On for this week's podcast is Bob Keller. Bob is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army Special Operations community with time served in the Ranger Regiment, Army Special Forces, and SMU. Bob now runs a tactical training company called Gamut Resolutions. His instruction is top of the line and instruction that is proven to work from years of experience as a warfighter. Co-hosting with me is Army combat veteran and a friend of mine Nick Betts, the owner of Krupto Strategic. Nick joined the Army in 05 so he arrived during the period where tactics and training were changing based on the experiences of our forces on the ground. Nick discusses what he's been up to and we touch on tactical shooting courses being taught by combat veterans, and non-combat veterans. Below is an excerpt.

John: You mentioned having the skills to shoot effectively, but you also need the mindset and having a good head on your shoulders to be able to perform in a gunfight situation. Can you talk about the mindset?

Bob Keller: Each person's mindset is going to be different, but what you need to keep in mind is you always have to expect it, and you have to accept it. What that means is every time you go outside, or you go into a building you should be thinking that something bad is going to happen. If you're thinking that you will accept the fact that something bad will happen to you. If you don't like that then you should probably never get into a gunfight. If you always think that way when a bad situation does happen it won't be as stressful for you.

Every situation is different. You can go to the range and train for 1000 different situations every day, and when the time comes for you to actually do something I guarantee it's not going to be any situation you’ve actually been in. It's always different. That's where it goes back to learning the basics. Getting the gun up, getting sight picture, and pulling the trigger.

Introduction audio: Seceratary of Defense James Mattis.

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

Bob Keller:

www.gamutresolutions.com

Facebook: Gamut Resolutions

Instagram: KellerGamutResolutions

Nick Betts:

www.kruptostrategic.com

Social Media:

Krupto Strategic

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