Grunts in Appalachia

It's not everyday you get to meet 1 of 300 men that achieved something as big as this man did.  JC Knight was and will always be a Marine Gunner.  This is a rank that most guys that serve 4 years like me (John) have never even seen walking among us regular folk. JC now spends his days selling rocket launchers to the military, and chilling in his man cave garage surrounded by weapons, deer heads, military décor and tools.  As you start peeling back the layers JC is a man that wants to lead from the front, be respected by his men and be known for being the most loyal of men that can be found walking the Earth. 

This episode has a lot of military jargon that might need some references explained, if so shoot us a message on Facebook and we will be glad to give you an answer to any questions.  Without further ado here's season 2 episode 1 we hope you enjoy.

The Grunts were joined by West Virginia Senator Mark Maynard this week.  

Mark filled us in with the happenings at the state level so we could begin to understand how legislating works.  It's always best to hear it from someone that knows how it works if you know what we mean. 

Being a politician is rewarding and anxiety filled at all times. We came away from the conversation understanding no matter what you do you're wrong for a lot of people.  

Senator Maynard is a passionate politician who you can tell wants to do the best job for the people that he is representing.  He was a complete gentlemen and also a wealth of knowledge for the position that he holds. Its super cool to sit down with people that make big decisions for our way of life and have the ability to understand each other.  Thank you Senator Maynard!

All you have to do is Google is his name and you'll have your answer as to why we asked Derrick to sit down with us.  Now after you have looked him up don't start judging until you hear what he has to say.  Things were discussed on this episode that the National media hasn't asked Derrick, while he has been running the circuit for a couple months now.  As always we keep it pretty light hearted and have some good banter. 

Towards the end of this episode we talk a little bit about UFO's and how the government has declassified tons of files.  Brandon brought this subject up because he just found out about it a the other day.  

As always if you enjoy the program please subscribe to our Spotify and Apple and hit that subscribe button

Grunts in Appalachia Out!

This week we had a Father and Son musical duo sit down with us and we spoke on a wide array of subjects.

Joe and Joel Lambiotte, which is a hard one to pronounce on the first try are some great fellas.  They played a few songs after the podcast that you will be able to check out on our Facebook and Instagram pages.  

We got Joe on a roll talking about the good ole days with less technology and not having instant access to anyone via cell phone and how it was far less stressful.  They told us about their upcoming show dates and a huge block party that they will be playing at in the next few weeks. 

Its 4th of July week, and the passing of the last remaining WW2 Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams and other topics we covered are all in there as well.  So let Freedom ring today, tommorrow and everyday! 

Episode 49 features an up and comer musician named Dale Blankenship.  Not only does he have a great mustache but he can jam it our on a 6 string as well. Hailing from Ironton, OH Dale spends his days looking for more gigs and also serves as a mechanic in the Army National Guard.  

We spoke a lot about the Reserves as most people don't really know the day to day or how the hierarchy works so it was pretty informative.

Right in the middle of the episode Snacks decided it was a good idea to start chewing on Dales guitar case so we had to take a quick recess to rescue his Martin guitar from the wiles of Snacks.  

If you're local to us around these parts Dale gave us the dates and locations of where he will be playing and we plan on showing up for some of those events for sure, so stay tuned for some more Appalachian musical podcasts in the near future. 

As always, 

Grunts in Appalachia Out!

This week the Grunts set down with some best friends, Tim Corbett and Carl Bailey.  Tim has been a police officer for a very long time and he has seen a lot of wild things through out his career. Tim will be setting down with us again very soon to talk about other awesome stuff that he does that we didn't get to talk about this go around.

Carl Bailey owns two great restaurants, Fly In Cafe and Pier One Landing both situated on the Mighty Ohio River!  The Fly in Cafe is home to the West Virginia Skydivers and they are jumping all the time.  One of the Grunts will be jumping very soon at this facility.  The also just set the WV single day single person jumps, you'll have to listen to find out the exact number.  

Something that we completely forgot to talk about on the episode that we would like to say is thank you Tim for the hospitality, your garage was a lot of fun and the bacon wrapped deer tenderloin that you cooked for us was amazing! 

Once again we got to sit down with some awesome guys, people worth knowing with great stories and lives well lived. 

We love to hear great stories form all of our guests.  For some reason we really enjoy hearing from generations past, for us that's the Vietnam Vets.  So this week we had a former Army helicopter pilot with 807 combat hours behind the stick in Vietnam Rick Brown.  For this guest all we can say is you never know who you're talking to unless you engage them to hear their stories.  Let us tell you something, Rick has some great stories that are not only mind blowing but also freaking hilarious.  

*Disclaimer* This one probably isn't for the kids! Adult content and all.

After his military service Rick jumped right back into his musical abilities and took them as far as he possibly could.  From Vince Gill all the way to B.B King, Rick has played with them all and he talks about some of his experiences on this episode. Don't want to give to much away just know that this man and his stories need to be heard. So check our episode 47 and enjoy yourselves.

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This week the Grunts made their way to VFW Post 9097 to sit down with a few warfighters and have a good time.  It didn't disappoint, while the older guys didn't understand what we were doing the younger veterans did and we had a ball. There's just something about sitting down with other veterans and just having a good time that's good for the soul.  We had Butch Chipps AKA the Tator who happens to be the post commander and his Senior Vice Ryan White sit down with us to just talk and carry on with all the shenanigans.  Our third guest was Smitty, well that's the only name we got for him while we were there and he was hands down one of the funniest people we have ever met.  It gets a little rough towards the end but we have a hard time deleting anything that these fellas want to say, because they earned the right to say what they want in our eyes. If you're easily offended leave this off your list after the 30 minute mark.  If you're down for whatever check it our all the way through for some great conversation. 

Enjoy it as much as we did creating it! 

Grunts in Appalachia Out!

So we went to podcast on location at the Brewgrass festival this weekend and we definitely went a little to hard if you know what we mean.  So hard that we forgot a secondary battery backup so we had to run the show quite short this week.  But we ran a long episode last week so we know you will still love us after taking a listen.

The guest lineup this week was Butch Chipps, Trevor Martin, Chad Ferrell and Tinia Creamer.  Tinia calls John out on the end of the show for all the screwups this week but she had a blast out there as well. If you get a chance to check out Brewgrass next year its worth the drive. 

So check out this weeks episode We Got Brewgrassed and have a good time with us! 

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Brandon and John sit down with Vietnam era Recon Marine Mark Curtis.  Mark will be celebrating his 73 birthday tomorrow 5/24/2022 so make sure to wish him a very happy birthday!

This week was special for us having a special forces Marine with a great story so we went a little long but it was so worth it, we think that you'll agree when you take a listen. 

Mark speaks about his time in service and deploying to Vietnam, a few stories and we were hooked.  There's quite a bit of military jargon and numbers for military specialties but we think everyone should be able to follow along.  If you get lost just remember that Brandon was in the Army and John was in the Marines so if you want to look up any numbers a simple Google search will get you your answers.

For Grunts Gear and Gadgets we talked about two things, a backpackers pillow and the way technology has made water purification in the field a much more efficient and better quality of water from the Vietnam Days to just recently. 

On the Wellness Check we discuss what it was like for the Vietnam veterans returning home after their deployments.  The things that they faced and how times have changed for the better, people being more understanding.  Its always nice to get a perspective from a doctor if you know what we mean. 

So here's episode 44 that we had a great time making and we know you'll also enjoy! 

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Grunts in Appalachia Out!