Global Recon

GRP 65-On for this week's podcast is Tim Kolczak of the Veterans Project and G from Zulu Foxtrot. Tim is an Army veteran, and G is a Marine Corps veteran. Both have trips to Iraq. G was in Fallujah, and Ramadi during the worst of the fighting there and he shares a story from his time in the country. We discuss the transitional process and the struggle that G experienced once he separated from the Marine Corps. We discuss what it takes to be successful as a veteran coming out of the military, and as a civilian. G talking about his struggles is very powerful and I suggest you guys check this episode out. Below is an excerpt:

John: You have two trips into Iraq during some of the heaviest fightings. Can you share a story of your experiences over seas?

G Zulu Foxtrot: We were in Ramadi. It was the deadliest city in the world at that point. The enemy was not afraid to show themselves. We had a couple of blocks that belonged to us. It was our green zone. The minute you ventured out the entire city came down on you. We went out with our platoon. During those days you have to literally run from one spot to the other. The minute you stopped you were taking fire. We get to the Ramadi hospital. Anyone who's been there has fond memories of that. There's a huge open parking lot. We spread out because we don't want to take fire and lose four guys in one shot.

I'm not going to mention any names because he was that asshole dude. We had a new guy it was his first deployment. I looked out the corner of my eye and I saw dust lift off his flak jacket and the kid just dropped. He's yelling "I'm hit, I'm hit". We all dove for cover. We're trying to figure out what happened. We think it's a sniper. My SGT is like" go get em" and I'm like "fuck you, you go get em, dude". What happened was this Iraqi kid threw a rock at him from a window.

G-Zulu Foxtrot:

www.zerofoxtrot.com

Facebook-Zero Foxtrot

Instagram-ZuluFucxs

Tim Kolczak:

www.thevetsproject.com

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Outro music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

Outro audio: Bruce Lee

GRP 64- First and foremost I want to send out my condolences to the family, friends, and teammates of Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, 36, of Peoria, Ill. Owens died after he was wounded during a nighttime raid on an al-Qaeda-held village in southwestern Yemen on Saturday. He was a U.S. Navy SEAL who served with distinction for over 15 years.

This episode was co-hosted by Chantel Taylor. Back on for this episode is my friend Tu Lam from Ronin Tactics. Because of the experiences of Chantel, and Tu I thought it would be a good idea to discuss Africa. We discuss the difficulties of the natural terrain, of the animals that inhabit Africa. We talked transnational terrorism and groups that rotate between Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia. Africa is a complex region. Tu spends several years in Africa fighting in Libya, and several other areas that are considered terror hotbeds. Bot he and Chantel share several stories of their time in the service. Below is an excerpt.

John: The Sudan was a safe haven for Osama Bin Laden prior to 2001. There's a whole bunch of training camps with different groups like Boko Haram. Look at the Philippine’s where the terrorist would filter into the country, get some training and filter back into the middle east and conduct operations there. Now with the rise of ISIS, a lot of these groups in Africa are pledging allegiance to them which can cause problems down the line.

Tu Lam: What I see John is the majority of these future terrorists they don't have an out, man. You have to put yourself in their shoes. I could be the guy who goes in and hates the enemy and drops a 500 lb JDAM(bomb) or goes out and do direct action missions but I see the bigger picture. These are the guys that when they're 8 years old these rebel forces go into their villages hand you an AK, and say gun down your mom and dad then hack your sister up with a machete, or we'll hack you up with a machete. Just like the Philippine’s, Abu Sayyaf. They don't have an out, man.

Chantel Taylor:

https://www.amazon.com/Battleworn-Memoir-Combat-Medic-Afghanistan/dp/1491725281

Facebook: Battleworn

Instagram: Mission_Critical

Tu Lam:

www.Ronintactics.com

Social Media: RoninTactics

Introduction words by Bruce Lee

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 63-Recon Sniper Foundation, 3rd Force Recon Commander, Leadership by Global Recon

GRP 62- Back on for this week's podcast is my good friend retired British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. We discuss the process of becoming a Combat Medic in the British Army, as well as discuss some of her experience's as an Army Medic, and as a Medic working as a contractor in several conflict zones post military.

The second conversation I had is with a former U.S. Navy Corpsman named Cris, who spent the duration of his career attached to the U.S. Marine Corps for multiple combat rotations into Afghanistan. Chris shares a story of a mass casualty event in which he was leading the quick reaction force into a potentially dangerous situation. Cris has since retired from the Navy and is now working with an incredible organization called the Global Surgical Medical Support Group (GSMSG). The GSMSG is an organization that provides medical training and treats soldiers fighting ISIS in Northern Iraq, and elsewhere. They have surgeons, doctors, and military medics working around the clock to train the Kurdish Peshmerga medics, as well as performing surgery on Peshmerga soldiers, as well as Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF). GSMSG is now recruiting SOF Medics for a trip into Syria. If you’re interesting apply on their website http://www.gsmsg.org

Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a story of a time you treated a casualty in combat?

Cris: My second deployment to Afghanistan we were supporting the Afghan’s as they took the lead in the fighting over there. We had a lot of mass casualty events. A couple of their vehicles struck an IED and we were the quick reaction force. I was with three other Marines. They could all do the basic interventions to help save lives. Putting on tourniquets, occlusive dressings, needle decompressions. There were 20 casualties total. When we got there the scene was total chaos. We started triaging. Who's alive? who needs care right now? we got everything from a triple amputee to minor burns. Having all my Marines trained to the standard that they could all perform casualty care efficiently was great. Each of us had four casualties. We were able to get them medevac'd and taken to a higher level of care.

Global Surgical Medical Support Group:

http://www.gsmsg.org

Facebook: Global Surgical Medical Support Group

Instagram:Global_Surgical_Medical_Support_Group

Chantel Taylor:

Facebook: Battleworn

Instagram: Mission_Critical

GRP 61- The one-year anniversary of the passing of Staff Sergeant Matthew McClintock. Matthew was an Army Special Forces Engineer Sergeant. With news of his passing circulating through the United States, the online military community really came together to contribute what they could to support his wife and young son. I remember feeling proud to see how Americans rallied around a gold star family.

Co-hosting for this week's episode is Tim Kolczak, the creator of the Veterans Project. Our special guest for this episode is one of Matthew's Special Forces teammates a retired Special Forces Medic named Chris. Chris talked about some of his experiences with Matthew as they had gone through the Special Forces selection course together, and eventually ended up on the same team deploying into a war zone together. Chris took out the time out of his busy schedule to record with us while he's in Afghanistan working as a contractor. We also talked a lot about Trauma medicine, bleeding control, and how the lessons learned from 16 years of hard war on the medical side are now being applied back here in the States raising the level of knowledge to new heights. We also touched on the veteran transitional process and what veterans can do to be successful as a civilian. Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a story of when you treated a casualty overseas?

Chris: This happened within the first week that I'd set up a VSO (Village Stability Operations) site in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. I was still setting up my clinic, and it as told we had a patient at our gate. They told me he'd been shot in the foot. The guy comes in, and he'd been hit by an RPG. He had shrapnel sticking out of his skull. He had through and through gunshot wounds to both thighs. He had a partial evisceration of his stomach, so his intestines were sticking out. All of these obscure medical techniques that they teach you in the 18 Delta course (Special Forces Medical course) I got to experience on my very first week deployed. We got em out of there completely bundled up. The helo was there in 45 minutes he survived, and he was back with his unit when we left country 9 months later. I wasn't prepared, but the training I'd done over the past two years took over at that point.

Chris:

www.readywarriorllc.com

Social Media: SpecialForcesMedics

Tim Kolczak:

www.thevetsproject.com

Social Media: The Veterans Project

Music provided by Caspian:

www.caspianmusic.net

GRP 60-Episode 60 of the Global Recon Podcast I thought it would be a great way to kick off the new year by having Wes Kennedy back on the show. Wes is a former Canadian Special Operations Regiment(CSOR) operator. Wes is a combat veteran and since leaving the military has become an expert in fitness, nutrition, and mindset. Wes owns and operates a successful company whose main focus is to help people from the Five Eyes(FVEY) community pass special operations selection. FVEY consist of the Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. We often received emails and messages on social media asking for any resources that can help someone pass a selection. Well, there is no better place than the services provided by Wes and his company. Below is an excerpt from the podcast.

John: You spent your time serving first as an engineer, then special operations, and now you've left the military. When you first started your company you were focused on a few different avenues of fitness and health. Now you guys focus more on special operations selection. You have the physical aspect, but you also have the mental aspect. I know this is something you specialize in. Can we talk about that?

Wes Kennedy: What I've learned over the past several years with hundreds of guys training for various special ops selections around the world is the programming. Spent a lot of time learning how to do nutrition. It's almost the fluff of the training. It's fairly easy to deliver good individualized program design, good individualized nutrition. There are few guys that take it on and do it without question. Hit it day in and day out. What happens with most of us being the human beings that we are is eventually guys hit a crossroad. They said they're going to do something and they don't do it. I've begun to create a series of modules and training for that mindset piece to understand where they're behavioral patterns come from. The first module we cover in the mindset piece we cover is a purpose. A man without purpose is lost in the wind. Purpose to me is essentially what do I need to do before I die? and what do I need to do before I die?

Wes Kennedy:

Main Site: www.brotherhoodlife.com

Warrior Mentor Project: www.warriormentorproject.com

Team Room Training:

www.teamroomtraining.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OfficialWesKennedy

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/WesKennedyETP

GRP 59- Co-hosting for this week's podcast is Tim Kolczak the creator of the Veterans Project. Tim was recording from the house of an American warrior who survived the Bataan Death March during World War 2. Tim's featuring this gentleman on his next project which will come out soon. It's very good. Our guest for this week is retired Army veteran, Mylee Cardenas. Mylee worked in several capacities throughout her Army career. She made her way into the Cultural Support Teams, a program that put women alongside Special Operations units in Afghanistan to assist in intelligence gathering and other aspects of the mission because of the culture sensitivity of Afghanistan. We talk about dealing with adversity and how to overcome it. Mylee discovered a lump in her breast while on deployment in a combat zone in which it was discovered to be stage 3 breast cancer. Below is an excerpt:

John: You've been in the Special Operations community for a few years now. There was a need in Afghanistan because of the cultural differences to have women alongside Special Operators to deal with the women and children and to handle other facets, working in several capacities as the strategy was changing. Eventually, you signed up for the special job?

Mylee Cardenas: 2009 I was voluntold to go to the school house at FT. Brag. The good idea fairy visited some people in SOCOM. For a while, in Afghanistan, there was a top-down approach to promoting governance and security. The Special Ops community decided that we needed to go back to the basics with a bottom-up approach. The Green Berets started setting up these Village Stability Operations camps all over of Afghanistan to train the local police, gather intelligence, and promote governance at the village level. As amazing as these men are they were only able to reach 50 percent of the population because of the cultural differences. A message came out about the program and I said nope I'm not doing it. I felt like it was a knee-jerk reaction, and there wasn't enough time put into setting this program up. The second time around it was more like you're going. The reactions to the program from the guys also made me not want to do it. I didn't want them talking about me the way they talked about these other chicks. I knew the men weren’t happy with this program.

GRP 58-A lot has been going on in the past 24 hours with Russia's ambassador to Turkey being assassinated in Turkey, as well as a terrorist attack in Berlin. We are proud to announce that we're revamping the article section for the website and have put together a solid team of writers to release content very soon.

On with me for this week's podcast is active duty Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD) Damian. We discuss what led him to join the Navy and talk about his career throughout. Damian gives you guys a combat story from his first rotation, and most importantly we talk about those Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. We discuss what it's like to lose someone you love, and how it can motivate you to work extremely hard as it has done for both of us. Below is an excerpt.

John: Can you share a deployment story with the audience?

Damian: This is from my first deployment. It taught me a lot. My platoon was supporting an ODA from 7th Special Forces Group clearing villages in Panjwayi in southern Afghanistan. We infilled at night. Had an Afghan Commando Unit with us. The commando's said they wanted to go through the doorway. Wasn't my favorite idea, but I said ok. They cleared the doorway. I went into the doorway and was doing a secondary clearance checking for IEDs. I didn't find anything so we made entry. The last two Afghans who went through initiated an IED. He was brought inside one guy lost 3 limbs, with the other guy suffering blast injuries. The MEDEVAC bird comes in and another IED went off as the bird came in. The rotor wash set it off. We were able to get a hoist dropped into our compound. The Afghan Commando didn't make it. We finished our mission and had to bring his body out upon ex-fil. Come day break I did a post-blast analysis of the IED strike. It went off right where I was kneeling. I have no idea how I didn't trip it. I saw it as a mistake, and it changed how I did my job in the future.

GRP 57- Co-hosting for this podcast is British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. I had a conversation with retired Slovenian Special Forces Medic "Sidik". Slovenia is a small country located in Eastern Europe. We talk about Sidik's time in the Mechanized Infantry in which he has a peacekeeping deployment into Kosovo. During the 1990's the Serbian government was pushing into the Serbian region of Kosovo which is mostly home to ethnic Albanians.

I have good friends of mine who are Albanian, and I remember a time when their fathers left the U.S. to go and help in the effort countering the Serbian advances. The Serbian military pressed into Kosovo and commenced acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The United States and its allies deployed into Kosovo and bombed targets inside Serbia to stop their advances. Sidik upon his return from Kosovo began his journey into the Slovenian Special Forces Regiment. He became a Special Forces Medic and underwent his medical training here in the States alongside American Special Operations Medics. Sidik has a combat rotation into Afghanistan alongside a Green Beret Special Forces ODA. Below is an excerpt from our conversation:

John: A lot of times until something bad happens people believe it could never happen until it's too late. We end up reacting. Having basic knowledge of bleeding control and tourniquet use could make a difference. Let's say someone gets in a car crash and you have a bilateral amputation of your lower leg, with a tourniquet and understanding of how to use it someone's life can be saved.

Can you share with the audience a story of your deployment?

Sidik: We were mentoring the Afghan Police, we ran armed reconnaissance, direct action in going after high-value targets. We went on a big operation into a valley that was Taliban-held territory. The plan was to have one team to set up over watch on top of the mountain with the other team clearing out the valley. I was on over watch. My team consisted of three Slovenians, and two Americans and a bunch of Afghani's. We started out with a couple of hundred guys, but upon reaching the top of the hill it turned out to only be us, and the American's (laughs). We got into a firefight and called in CAS (Close Air Support), but even with the gunships, these guys were still hammering us. When the op was over walking back down the hill suddenly we got 10 guys with us, and then 50 people, and by the time we got back down the hill, we had 300 guys with us again (laughter)

GRP 56-Co hosting for this podcast is Army veteran Tim Kolczak the man behind the Veterans Project. On with us for this podcast is Australian Special Forces Veteran Eddy Robinson. Eddy has multiple combat rotations with the 2 Commando Regiment. We discuss Eddy's career path, get into some combat stories, and honor Eddy's best friend Corporal Cameron Baird, VC, MG. Corporal Cameron Baird is the first Australian commando to be awarded a Victoria Cross and the first posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia. Corporal Baird is also the 100th Australian to be awarded a Victoria Cross. He's one of Australia’s most highly decorated soldiers of the modern era. We discuss Iraq, counter-terrorism, and Afghanistan. Below is an excerpt from the episode:

John: I'm reading about the rise and roots of ISIS. A lot of it is credited a to the Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The U.S. named him as one of the reasons for going into Iraq when he was just in charge of a small terror cell prior to that. After naming him it catapulted him into the spotlight. Making him a major player. He then stoked the flames for a civil war being Sunni and Shia Muslims throwing the country into chaos.

Eddy Robinson: My experience there was from a contracting perspective 05-06 period. Every morning before 10'o clock you hear the huge IED's being detonated. For the guys on the ground, it was relentless. Zarqawi was the perfect catalyst for making the situation worse. We got our intelligence reports about mass graves being found on the side of the road. People being mass executed by these guys. It was a very difficult situation during that time.

Tim Kolczak: I joined in 05 I was 17. My drill sergeants were coming back from their 18-month tours. You could just tell how it affected them. We were the first trainees to get trained up by these guys. I remember the recruiter telling me not to become a truck driver because 1 in 5 was getting killed. One of the guys I knew was killed by a Somali contingent in Samarra. We were fighting people from all over the globe.