Global Recon

GRP 25-On this episode I had the honor to fly out to Colorado Springs, and attend Special Forces Green Beret Tu Lam’s retirement ceremony. Tu is the owner of Ronin Tactics which is a tactical training company that leverages the experience of Special Operations war fighters. Tu spent 22 and a half years in the Army with 20 of those being in the Army Special Operations Command.

We discuss how Tu used eastern philosophy to help him during his dark period after he was finished with combat, and making his transition. If you have any questions about anything on the podcast send an email to [email protected]

GRP 24- The U.S. service member killed near Irbil, Iraq, by ISIS gunfire was a Navy SEAL. The Associated Press later identified the casualty as Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) 1st Class Charlie Keating IV. From all of us at Global Recon, and Field Craft we want to extend our condolences to the Keating family during this difficult time. Fair winds, and Following Sea’s

Below is an excerpt from the episode from Special Forces operator Chuck Ritter:

“In the video you see me coming around the corner shot. So basically we under estimated the enemy force present in the area. Our partners were the Afghan Commando’s, and we had very few Americans on the ground. We came in at night, and it was clear all night. Then in the morning right when the sun came up the enemy actually closed to within 5 to 10 meters of our battle positions, and started throwing hand grenade’s over the wall, and were really lighting us up.

So we were going out trying to push these guys back off our perimeter. The fact that the terrain was very maze like allowed them the freedom of maneuverability to move on us. Aerial imagery, and everything else didn’t paint the right picture on the ground. An overhead drone spotted an ambush, and the operator was telling us that there was an enemy ambush set up a couple hundred meters away. We were trying to flank that ambush, but in reality the ambush was right there. We turned the corner, an Afghan Commando got shot took a round to the leg, and it blew off some fingers. A good majority of the rest of the Afghan Commando’s ran away.

It was me, my medic, and EOD guy. All of the fast movers moved off station, so the only thing I had overhead was Apache’s. So I started working fire to provide cover for this casualty.” If you have any questions about anything you heard on the podcast send an email to [email protected]

Below is an excerpt from the episode. From Mike Glover the show’s co-host, and Kevin T who is a 20 year Special Forces veteran:

So me and Kev were Snipers on the same detachment. That was Iraq 08, we were in the CIF at the time. Kevin was in a helicopter crash. We were on the same team, you guys were doing an op. I was on the HLZ, and seeing you guys off. I remember making a joke in typical SOF fashion just shooting the shit. I remember saying hey don’t frap in, don’t crash. Literally I think 10 mins later I was heading to QRF, and my SGM was telling me to get everybody ready because we had to go QRF these guys because they just got in a helicopter crash.

So they had two helicopters, NAFSOC’s MH-60’s which is their version of it. There set up kept us alive. Their door gunners kept us in where typically we would have had our feet hanging off the sides. Two helo’s infilled into a FOB (Forward Operating Base) the second helicopter hopped a power line. They thought we were taking incoming, and you felt it just the noise how intense it was. Got heavy on the stick and literally nose was just down into the lead helicopters tail rotor which dislodged it, and severed one of the team members in half and caused quite a bit of destruction around it.

That night we lost one of the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Force guys and I think everybody was wounded except for one of our teammates who was next to the sniper who got cut in half that same propeller swatted him on the ass, and knocked him over. I think everybody took shrapnel, yea we were covered in blood and diesel fuel just crawling out of there.

Send questions to [email protected]

GRP 22- On this episode we have two special guest back on the show in Tu Lam from Ronin Tactics who is a 20-year veteran of Army Special Forces, and Mike Stahl a MACV-SOG Green Beret who served in Vietnam. Mike Glover the co host of the show is also back on this episode, and he discusses what its like working with indigenous forces which is a specialty of Army Special Forces Green Berets. Mike Stahl and Tu Lam also discuss working with indigenous forces, as well as the realties of what war is like. Below is an excerpt from Mike Stahl:

“War is fucking hell, I’m sorry there’s nothing nice about it. The best thing in war is to get it over quickly, and sometimes its pretty dam brutal. Until you’ve been shot at, and doing some shooting back, until you’ve been in that crucible you don’t know if you’ve got what it takes or not.”

Below is an excerpt from Tu Lam:

“In war there’s a smell, there’s a taste to it, there’s a feel that you can’t describe. I tell ya man if I don’t have to serve another day in war I’ll be a happy man. Musashi Myamoto wrote The Book of 5 Rings in a Buddhist cave, and he said one thing that always stuck with me and he said “You should fight as if you already died”. There’s a certain point where you still think, but your body reacts, and your kind of in an out of body experience. Rounds are shot, shots are fired you need to do and react. You need to take that initiative away from the enemy otherwise they will control that situation.”

If you have any questions about anything on the episode, or want to contact us send an email to [email protected]

GRP 21-On this episode two interviews were conducted. The first is with DJ Struntz who is the Minister of Propaganda for North American Rescue. NAR is a premiere provider in pre hospital, point of wounded medical care. NAR has assembled a seasoned staff of former Special Operations medics, experienced Law Enforcement/SWAT/EMS healthcare providers. The CAT Tourniquet (Combat Application Tourniquet) is the official tourniquet of the US Army, and has contributed to the decrease in deaths on the battlefield for the modern day war fighter.

The second interview was conducted with G from Zero Foxtrot. G is a Marine combat veteran with deployments to Fallujah, and Ramadi during the Iraq war. He has popular social media profiles which post interesting content highlighting warfighters from wars past, and we discuss some things that are popular misconceptions amongst people with limited knowledge on modern warfare, and the history of warfare as well. Any questions send an email to [email protected].

Army Snipers, Ramadi, Kixeye Gaming, Webinars

GRP 20-On todays episode of the podcast we conducted two separate interviews. The first interview is with combat veteran and owner of Krupto Strategic Nick Betts. Nick spent 8 years in the Army as an Infantrymen, serving his first tour in Ramadi, Iraq which was one of the most contested cities of the entire campaign. Stories of combat in Ramadi have been brought to light by books like American Sniper written by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Betts served in Ramadi with the SEALs during his tour there, and gives us a combat story as well.

In the second interview Mike Glover has on Will Harbin the Chairman & CEO of KIXEYE, a leading developer and publisher of online games and a pioneer in free-to-play gaming. Over the last six years, Harbin has led KIXEYE to become one of the top gaming companies in North America. In addition to founding numerous other companies, he is also an avid shooter, hunter, and sportsman. Mike and Will discuss leadership, and will gives some great advice on how to build a team that will lead to success for any business.

The webinar will be held on Saturday April 9th at 4pm eastern standard time. In this webinar we will be discussing survival psychology-why people live and die, review a survival case study, discuss training methodology for filling the gap, and establish survival techniques and procedures that will increase your ability to react and survive a natural or man-made catastrophe. This block of instruction will last approx. 2-2hr-30min. Followed by 30 minutes of Q&A on survival and preparedness. The webinar will cost $79.99. Go to www.fieldcraftsurvival.com and under the store tab click training. There you can find the option to purchase your slot for the webinar.

Mike Glover the Co-Owner of FieldCraft Survival is a former Special Forces SGM, Sniper, and Survival Expert. He has worked as a USG Contractor for a government agency for 3 years in austere "low visibility" environments and is an expert in trade craft, field craft, survival preparedness and low visibility operations.

Send an email to [email protected] if you have any questions or suggestions.

Webinar Opt in Link: http://www.fieldcraftsurvival.com/store/#!/Live-Webinar-O-P-S-Course-with-Mike-from-FieldCraft-LLC-9APR16-3-HRS/p/64142121/category=17958375

GRP 19-On this episode we have Mike Stahl, and Mike Glover back on. This discussion is about the difference in Special Forces during the Vietnam era in which Mike Stahl served, and modern day Special Forces in which Mike Glover served. Mike Stahl talked about his experience going through the famed MACV-SOG Recondo school which is the only military school of its kind. Soldiers were taught the hard skills they would need to operate in the jungle deep behind enemy lines, and the training culminated in a patrol through the jungle of an unsecured area, at times teams got into gunfights, and had to be extracted out. Mike also gave us a funny war story from a time where he had to go into the jungle to extract a team in trouble.

We’ve been getting hit up with questions about what its like for the family of a soldier who’s serving in Special Forces. The few minutes spent discussing this will answer a lot of questions on the matter. Any questions can be sent to [email protected]

The image used to promo this episode is a painting that can be purchased from the Special Forces Association’s Chapter 7’s website here: http://www.sfa7.com/news-events/event-3/

GRP 18-Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam war so to honor the brave Americans who fought and died in Vietnam we have MACV-SOG one zero, or Team Leader Green Beret Mike Stahl back on the show. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service United States special operations unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam War.

Mike tells a war story of his last operation running recon operating deep behind enemy lines. The mission was intended to be a POW snatch (Prisoner of War) which is considered to be amongst the most dangerous missions to conduct for a recon team. They inserted, got into a gun battle as expected, and called in what is known as a Prairie Fire over the radio. Calling in a Prairie fire is what gave SOG their astounding kill to death ratio of hundreds, and at times thousands to one. Any questions, or suggestions email us at [email protected]

GRP 17-We’ve been getting email’s and messages on social media asking if we can have allied Special Operations soldiers on the show. On todays episode we have Australian Special Forces veteran Mitchell McCalister on discussing some of the structure, and mission set that the Australian commandos are responsible for including counter terrorism, and various other security type operations.

Webinar update: Cut off date to opt in is Wednesday march 30th, the final pay day is Friday April 1st. The Webinar will be hosted April 2nd during afternoon hours’ eastern standard time. Send an email to [email protected] to opt in.

Mike talks about his leadership/team building seminar with KIXEYE a mobile gaming company that operates out of San Francisco and abroad, and is the creator of Vega Conflict on the iTunes App store. He highlights the next episode where he will interview the CEO of KIXEYE Will Harbin and get a glimpse of his leadership methodology in leading a gaming company using irregular warfare in training, planning and execution.

For any questions regarding anything on the show send an email to [email protected]

Mitchell McCalisters Instagram: Mitchell_McCalister

Mitchell McCalister’s veteran organization: www.avob.org.au

John Hendricks website: www.globalrecon.net

John Hendricks Instagram/Twitter: IgRecon

John Hendricks Facebook: FB Recon

Mike Glover’s website: www.fieldcraftsurvival.com

Mike Glover’s Instagram: SofSurvivor

Mike Glover’s Twitter: IgSofSurvivor

Mike Glover’s Facebook: Field Craft LLC

Music provided by Caspian: www.Caspianmusic.net

GRP 16- This is a very special episode for several reasons. One we have Nate the team leader from Rucking Raiders on again who is finishing up the 700 plus mile march organized by his organization consisting of MARSOC operators honoring their fallen brothers who were killed last year in a training accident.

The second reason this is a special episode is we have the distinct honor and privilege of having MACV-SOG Operator Mike Stahl the one zero, or team leader of RT (Recon Team) Michigan for CCN (Command and Control North). Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG) was a highly classified, multi-service United States special operations unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam War.

Operators from this unit took on the most dangerous missions of the Vietnam War, and are some of the most decorated soldiers in the history of the United States Military.

Joining the conversation is my good friend Jason Economos who is an author and Vietnam expert. Jason wrote an excellent book on MACV-SOG called Gentle Propositions. The book is available on amazon.com. For anyone interested in opting in to our Survival mindset paid webinar send an email to [email protected]