Dale Comstock on Near-Deaths & Escaping Hostile Countries

Hey, guys, if you're not following me on Spotify, please hit that follow button and leave a five-star review. They're both a huge, huge help. Thank you. Run in 24-hour ops, 365, and Street Value, my dogs were probably close to really about $850 to $850 to $1 million for 45 cans, yeah. When they're trained properly, they're very expensive, you know. Now, do you have clients that you're constantly training dogs for and sending them back to? No, I don't do that. All the dogs I have are trained for my own business. Oh, just for you guys. Just for us, yeah. Now, how many, I don't even know if you want to say this, but how many guys do you have work in for you? I had 65 at one point. I had to let them go after COVID. Unfortunately, you know, COVID, again, don't get me started. Oh, it was bad for war? These are, this is Bali, Indonesia, security. I know. Yeah. But like, you guys are being sent to war zones and shit sometimes. Like, that's, that didn't stop because of COVID, no? Right. Exactly. Right. But the whole world shut down because of COVID and all the properties that were had our canines. We're like, hey, we got to shut down. So you take your dogs off the property. Like, and then now I can't pay my handlers, right? Oh, I understand. I understand. And I got to let them go. I understand now. And then the canines, I actually think some of my canines miss appropriating something else. Yeah. I think some of my canines actually died from COVID. It had some really weird symptoms. And by the way, COVID's been around for at least 20,000 years. I've been a knockout. 20,000 years. Yeah. I've actually been a knockout in my dogs for COVID since 1985 for COVID-19 or for COVID. For COVID. Yeah. Yeah. COVID-19 is just a variant of it, right? Yes. That's right. But COVID's been around for a long time. Yes. And, and so I think some of my dogs actually got COVID because in Indonesia, I don't believe the vaccines have COVID. And a vaccine. There's what's called seven way in a eight way. It's a combination of vaccines, right? But I don't believe in Indonesia. We had the vaccine for COVID in the in the seven or eight ways that we were using. So I had some really weird symptoms. Some of my canines. I actually lost, I probably lost 30 dogs for 30. Yeah. At least for even either disease and or just center. These dogs aren't working anymore. They're being housed because we can't travel. We can't move. We can't do anything. I mean, literally, there was a point where you couldn't drive down the road without somebody a police officer or a soldier stop. You go, where's your pass at? Like Nazi Germany stuff? Like, what are you doing out here? Where's your pass at? You know, going to grocery stores, sir? Yeah. Crazy, man. Yeah. It's amazing. And like, even here, it's amazing how fast that happened. Yeah. You know, like one day, shit was normal the next day. People were like, oh, yeah, we're just locked inside. No problem. Like, don't go to grocery store. You might die. Yeah. It's a myth is like snap at a finger. You know, you know, in Indonesia, I go back to Indonesia because this is where I can relate to it. In Indonesia, about 45% of the population lives off of day wages. Whatever they can sell that day in terms of food or parking a car is what they're eating on, right? Yeah. You know, a couple of cents here, parking car, sell muffin, whatever, right? That's what they're going to feed their family on. Well, they got to a point where they weren't allowed to be out selling food. They weren't allowed to do anything. Had to hunker down. It's like how they're going to make money. And people were literally, I've seen videos of entire families hanging themselves from the rafters because they would rather hang than starve to death because they weren't allowed to work. Think about that for a minute for a virus with a 99% survival rate. I did the math on it. You did. Yeah. I've done the math. I take the CDC statistics on all that. And you've calculated it with the population is like, damn, you know, and now it's all coming out like, yeah, okay. Yeah, it's one of those things where we knew I was around here when it was happening, but, you know, the strike zone that hit hard in America was New York and North Jersey and stuff. And none of us were the average people like me or probably even you were like, virologists back then understood how viruses work, but viruses start. They kill a lot of people and as they're killing a lot of people, they're like, oh, shit, we don't want to kill the host. So it slows down. It has a curve over time. And I think that here, you know, they just dragged it on for so fucking long, you know, to such an archaic level that, you know, putting that rabbit back in the head is tough. I mean, I can see it at the beginning. But yeah, it was insane. How far are the measures? I don't know if Joe told you on the show, but Joe and four of the guys. Yeah, Joe, they actually scheduled appointment to go down and get tested for COVID, right? Get tested for COVID. Then it didn't cancel a week later. They all got letters saying they were positive for COVID. Think about that for a minute. Think about that for a minute, right? How was that? Was he testing? Why was he testing for COVID? Exactly. We want to see if he had COVID. And so we just randomly. Yeah, all right. And so he scheduled appointments, counsel it for whatever reason or another and then they got the letter saying, hey, by the way, you're positive for COVID. So yeah, that's the kind of crap that's going on. You know, a lot of people made a lot of money and a lot of people were their livelihood. Mine was my business was wrecked badly because of this. You know, when we were talking, I'm sorry, when we were talking five minutes ago, I was thinking off the canine. I was thinking about the other stuff, not the canine. Yeah, yeah. This is wild. Yeah, yeah. And we've, you know, we've never really recovered, although we're recovering. We're actually making more money now than we did pre-COVID with less clients, which is kind of weird how that worked out. We definitely, we definitely took a beating. And the worst part was I had, you know, of the 65 handles I had, I had to let 55 go. I just couldn't support him, and why I just, you know, we lost pay and we lost our ass, you know. And I remember, you know, when I felt bad because my guys, my employees are like family, you know, we treat, treat them very fairly and very well, you know, and they are part family. You know, we know their families and, you know, and I, the, the approach that I take to, you know, running a business is, you know, treat my employees with respect. In fact, the first thing, I told my wife, I said, you know what, first two things, these are in parodies. I said, every man gets his check, his full pay check, every time on time, no excuse ever, right? He gets paid because there's a tendency not to do that over there, right? And it says to two, if a guy makes a mistake, we don't find the first time we counsel him. If he makes a second mistake, we know what will penalize you a little bit of money, don't do that again. And then he makes the third time that we cut his head off, I said, you know, but we try to be fair about it. Those are my two rules. And they appreciate that. And I knew their families and I knew they were depending on this pay check to feed their families. And by the way, Indonesia average family makes about $260 a month. Think about that for a man. 260 farms that go there, though. It goes pretty far because they live a very minimalist life, you know, but also it's like very inexpensive there. It's inexpensive, but he's been there. And he knows you still, you know, he's been there. He's poor. Yeah, but they're not eating steaks. I can tell you that. You know, they're not eating a lot of meat. They're eating a lot of rice, a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit, and a lot of water, right? And that's good. Yeah, it's actually good, but they don't, you know, they don't get the privileges we do like travel and go do this. They don't have a lot of expendable money, you know. And so, you know, and that was important to me too to make sure they're paid well, you know, for their standards anyways and try to keep them handy. But when that happened, I actually had one guy. He came back to us and he told us that his daughter had died a little like two-year-old daughter. And what happened? Oh, yeah, she was really sick, you know, and we had the money for the bills. And I'm like, I'm not dude, you should have called me out of giving the money out of paid for it, you know, and I'm giving it to you, you know, family. But, you know, that's how they are, man. It's like, you know, kids were dying, you know, and guys didn't have the money to take care of their children or families anymore, you know. And I was so angry, man. One of, if not the most common DMs I get on Instagram are many of you asking me what my favorite books are. Well, today's your lucky day, because if you use the link in my description below to join my newsletter, I'm going to give you my top 10 book recommendations right now. Also, if you'd like to join my clipping community for a chance to make money producing content from the show, you can do so via the Discord link in my description below. And finally, you can join my Patreon for early uncensored releases of the full episodes via the Patreon link in my description below. As always, please take one second to hit that subscribe button. If you haven't already, I really appreciate that. Also, the like button's a big help and you can join my newsletter via the link in the description below. You know, it's like, you know, what, what a scam, man. And people, you know, the other thing too, but go back to the canines. You know, canines can pick up viruses. Canines can actually sense and detect a virus. They can detect cancer. They can detect seizures before they come on. It's amazing where a canine can detect. And I had trained dogs, and I was working with a group that we've trained dogs to pick up COVID viruses. Could it actually sense if a person had a virus before they showed symptoms? Nobody wanted to talk about that. Nobody wanted to do that. You know why? They were making all the money off the PCR tests and sent them to the hospital. Nobody wanted to talk about, let's mitigate this. We put canines at the airports when you come through like an explosive detector dog, you know, and we second out people that might be sick. Because it was a racket, people made a lot of money. Yeah, COVID made some people, man. Made a very rich business. Made a very rich and it killed a lot of businesses, you know, you killed a lot of families, killed a lot of people, you know, inadvertently. So, yeah, it's it's managed just one of those things that just aggravating as hell. You know, the lies are being perpetrated at our at our expense, you know, the fear mongering. I was at the G20 summit last year, which happened to be in Bali, right? So I got contract to come into the security for it. Or like an individual leader or all the G20 all the. Yeah, G20. Just like a whole thing. Yeah, the whole G7 was somewhat right there while it's right. So I got contract to come in and provide canines with security. So I also got to listen to some of the bullshit that they were spewing on the podium. Right and he was just needed. I need an image of you in the corner with the dog like that's bullshit These people were eating this shit up. I'm like, oh you can't me. Here's five things Here's the five takeaways from the G20 something that I got five things Well, yeah, we have a water shortage Oh, that's bullshit. I just swam to this fucking convention this morning because it's raining so hard in Bali All right, there's water all around the planet. We got saline salination plants where there's no water shortage Okay, but there's a water shortage. There's a food shortage. I go bullshit. There's no food shortage either There's no food shortage three. There's energy shortage. Yeah, guess what that's a that's a self-inflicted gunshot wound There's but we have plenty of energy if we just you know turn on the spigot, you know For there's gonna be another pandemic, but this one's gonna be bad and number five was oh, yeah, the Russians are bad They're gonna kill us all like what a bunch of shit. What was this summer? This was last year last November last November Here we go a year ago Just scary shit, you know when you when you hear people with power and influence up there and they're literally brainwashed and everybody Look at you know look at the world economic form that freaking shit show, you know That's funny, you know, but but these people these people are manipulators man and and everybody else not paying attention You know, they're I hate when people say well, you know, I don't watch the news anymore It's like you should watch the news because they don't want you to watch the news because they don't want you to watch We don't do it. Well the news but the news is also all slanted none of it's real right And that's why you should watch it because you need to watch the shit show and then do your own critical vacant Yeah, but like people That's the problem though people will watch something like that passively when they do or they'll see the clips on social media And you got to remember everyone, you know, they got the family and they got the job they got their life Yeah, we want to see people that Make decisions for themselves and don't just listen to what's said, but if they're already listening passively, I'm thinking of like Smart people out there too who it's just kind of passive I see it happen all the time where people are and and I'll I'm guilty of it sometimes too because I'll hear someone be like oh Yeah, that thing, you know what I mean like there's so much going on It's like not everyone is the president not everyone's a secretary of state, you know, they're all just normal people I hear you but I think that's kind of built into the system that some of the people the powers that be take advantage Of that because they know people have priorities that the news isn't paying their bills, you know, that's right It's the human condition man There's the leaders and then there's those that follow unfortunately most people are followers, you know, and they trust everybody else You know to give them information and expect it to be truthful when it's not, you know, sadly It's crazy times we're living in very crazy times. Yeah, for sure, but you so you we had said this a little bit ago, but you retired from the military You know one six weeks before 9/11 when you did that like the second you retired was your plan to go into contracting Or okay, no, so then plane hits the buildings right is did that change for you? Well, what happened was I Wanted to start so before I got out the military. I'm okay. I'm a retire. What am I gonna do when I get out? Okay, what am I good at pulling triggers and there's not a lot of need for that in the civilian world and I'm thinking well What am I good at what could I do and I thought, you know, I could start a security company even though Security wasn't making a lot of money back then either, you know an average security manager at a big back was making Maybe $80,000 a year and that was top money, you know, but I said, you know something's better than nothing I want to start my own business. I want to be self-employed so I started a security company and Had a partner we started campaigning in the in the nuclear security sector private sector and then Anyways, we had ourselves known nothing was happening and then 9/11 happened and banned the doors open wide open for us And before you know, we were making shit loads of money in the nuclear security sector doing it basically Hardening all the nuclear power plants in the United States. Well everything. I mean all aspects of security man We yeah, we did really well in fact a lot of the us Security security apparatus as this constructs that you see in that sector now Was derived from my company So much so that in 2004 G for us came along say we want to buy a company, you know, and I was like happy to do that because I didn't think This was going to live very long, right, but man. I could have never been more wrong here. We are right security still a big deal Yeah, the threat still evolving, you know, but I was smart enough to start a second company right away sold it later on 2011 so my goal was not to get into contracting my job My goal was just to run a business and do security consulting and then I got recruited by, you know, the government at the same time I was this ground branch It's whatever you want to call it and and so anyways. I ended up doing that Almost nine and a half years and I wasn't supposed to I supposed to do it for about a year It was my plan check check the block before you know it nine and a half years went by and I'm like down You know, and then my I mentioned ambush earlier the last ambush the final ambush I decided time to get out and do something different. So that's what brought me back which ambush was that number five. It was uh I got ambush one night. Basically. We got boxed in on us It was one road down the Kunar Kunar River on both side here Kunar. Yeah, where I've guessed in okay So on both sides you you didn't you didn't talk about this on camera. I thought I did no I started to maybe I got it. Yeah, I went on a tangent. All right. All right. I always do I need more coffee No, some more. No, I'm good. Okay. I'm actually gonna say I think you're about to fucking blow through that window if I give you more coffee I drank a gallon of it already. I had to man. I haven't had no sleeps in Sunday Been traveling 32 hours on one flight from Hand from Indonesia to Manila Damn, I drove five hours last night. Yeah. So thank you for doing that. All right. There's a whole slip up with with the I don't think the airport and everything. I appreciate you. But that ambush uh the one I'm referring to What happened was we were on a road a river road small dirt road We drove into an area. It's about uh seven kilometers that the Taliban owned it was their territory. Who's we? My group that my they would try to get a small small element and There were mountains on both sides We were we were basically on the road running along the river. There was no you can't make a left or right turn You got to go north or south down this road and we had to stop and And very short order we heard the Taliban on the radio that set up ambushes on both of ends of our small convoy and then we're getting ready to hit us and And then I realized oh shit the only way we're getting out of this is we got to run the gauntlet now and we know they're gonna hit us We know they're gonna blow us this up IDs. We knew they were um and so we made a decision we're gonna turn around run north again run the ambush Hopefully fight through it and then get back to our to our base camp and I remember when we turned around that night Um, there was a total of we had like 23 vehicles um And we're spread out about 50 meters each so think about that for a minute you know Over a kilometer long convoy, you know and on that road you can only travel maybe five miles an hour max speed It's just really bad to road So we turned around and We already made contact once or we already had casualties guys got shot up So we're already dealing with that got the vehicles turned around and we had called in a H6 attack Packed you attack helicopter He actually had gone back and he had reloaded refueled got more ammunition came back and we decided okay We're gonna let him run out in front of us strafe the road And then when he strafe the road we're gonna start driving as we're listening to the Taliban on the radio because we had What's called an icon radio? That's what the Taliban used so it's pretty much an open channel And we had a couple and our interpreters were listening to it and they were telling us what the guys were doing And they had actually just they had changed their tactics over the years They used to his um from a distance long-range ambushes And now what they were doing is getting right up on the road Right and then actually getting between the vehicles. So now we're in a crossfire And they also knew that you know the helicopters close air support can engage in me Otherwise, they would engage our own our vehicles, right? So they got a little smarter as time went on and so we knew there was near the edge of the road Um, and we knew what they're gonna do In fact, we heard him say hey, we're gonna hit this vehicle this vehicle and they got this weapon systems this weapon So we're gonna grab that grab that grab this by the way This goes all the way back to the Mujahideen and the Russians they used to do that as well They were usually hit the last vehicle in a Russian convoy and it's clean it out You know because they knew the Russians were gonna turn around and come back and help these guys. They're gonna keep on booking So we knew what they're gonna do And we're sitting there and the helicopters came in and started strafing the road And then the first vehicle left to remember watching through my night vision cargo is all the guns open up and the instructions were As I gave them I said shoot at everything and anything A Taliban could hide behind Open every gun system on your truck and let them shoot right we had guns placed in every direction So the first vehicle takes off at a blazing like five miles an hour to shoot and then the second one And then the third one was like March of the penguin you know, but and I'm like the 15th truck back And I got all the antennas on mine. It says command vehicle blow this one up, right? And I'm actually driving my command vehicle and I got you know My Afghan interpreters with me and I'm telling the same thing I go dude as soon as I start driving I said shoot anything. We're a bad guy can hide behind it You know I said don't relent until we get out of sync So as I'm sitting and I'm watching the vehicles go one by one the firefight starts I got time to watch the show and think about it before it's time for me to start driving my vehicle, right? And also and I thought you know what? I've never I've been in a lot of ambushes, but I've never actually had to deliberately drive into an ambush to get out of it But I have no choice this time and then I started thinking about what if I don't make it out of this one You know, I am driving the one with the antennas and so I Thought about my family, and I took the moment. I said okay. I want to visualize Every one of my children's face everybody's face my wife my kids one by one See their face for the last time maybe their face their face their face their face their face this face And then what I want to do is get that all out on my mind, so I'm no longer distracted by that right and knowing that would be Maybe the last time I ever think about them or see them, you know Now I need to do is be laser focused on how much time do you take to do that? A couple seconds. It was close my eyes and thought about it and I saw their faces You know taking a deep breath, you know and got it got over that piece of it and then started moving out And I remember I broke the run for the fright the strut on the front right side of my truck, right? So now I got the wheel rubbing on side the wheel well and catch it on fire So I'm the only truck with his wheels on fire Doing five miles down the road going shoot me shoot wheels on Yeah, because the stretchbook because a road road road so bad, you know and But I I lived through it got through the other side and we had maybe seven trucks get shot up a couple more casualties, but We got all the way out on the other side Like I said, they own about seven kilometers of this dirt road and I remember we're listening to the radio and the commanders yelling at The guy that was had the clacker for the IED's because it was a there was a S-turn and he had set the IEDs up in the S-turn Right the apex there when we knew we had to kind of slow down to come around that corner and He never fired the ID and the commanders like yelling. Why didn't you blow up the ID? He goes I couldn't sorrow because there was shooting so many bullets at me. I couldn't get my head up I go well, I guess the plan worked, you know, and so we didn't we didn't get IED We did take some shots and stuff like that some casualties, but You know we got but after I got out of that I thought that's it. That's it. I made it. I'm done That's that's it. It's all over you know. I was it for that. That was it for it for that That war I was out of there right now, right and I came back and Started doing all the Hollywood stuff and the corporate stuff and you know and Hong Kong stuff Yeah, yeah, every story I hear about The Middle East during the global war on terror. It just it almost doesn't feel real because it wasn't long ago I mean it just ended like a year and a half ago or whatever it was and you know the the It's it's like it's halfway around the world, but you guys saw it you saw exactly what it was you saw Life and danger at all times not just your own But you know the people who lived there and by their own people and in many cases with the place like Afghanistan But when you we we touched on a little bit already, but when you saw the imagery that look like leaving Saigon basically like a redux of that in 2021 with Afghanistan falling was there where you one of those guys who was like fuck we got to go there We got to go find the interpreters that that you know helped me over those years or whatever like what was going through your head Yeah, so all right So while I was operating over there. I operate under pseudonym right and never use my real name. There's a reason for that obviously, you know Of course, yeah, what you know now, you know, I'm everybody knows dude I walked down the street all around the world and people go hey, are you the American badass and firstly I go Depends Are you a good guy or bad guy? You know, I mean I get that a lot, you know Obviously, I can't escape the most and I'll okay. I don't try to eat. I'm not trying to yeah, that mustache I can see that well, I don't know I write things. I'm stone cold Steve Austin So I take a lot of pictures pretend to be him like yeah, and sometimes Sometimes it's the what's the name of the whole code and then Sometimes also what's it Vin Diesel right not so much my son actually you get Vin Diesel actually my son is Vin Diesel He looks just like Vin Diesel. I'm gonna say. I'm calling bullshit on that one. Yeah, but I know I have gotten Vin Diesel Like, you know, those people are fucking blind. Yeah, I don't know so Yeah, anyways But to your point, you know when that happened when Kabul fell I Don't know how a lot of my soldiers because they never knew me by my full name never and they never had but they found me They found me on social media Facebook and they call me commander because for all intents and purposes. I was a commander And it was like commander. Can you help me? Can you save me my family? Can you come again? I tried actually I had a couple guys And your family's lined up to go out on a couple lifts one was not straight in bird and both of them fell through I actually Actually wrote them letters To get them passage through the gates, you know, it's like a show. Hey, you look, you know this guy blah blah You know he's vouching for me. I tried everything I could to get these guys out and To no avail. It was just very hard to get them out and and there was they're even to this day. They're still texting me I got a guy three days ago just text me commander commander. How are you, you know, and it's how it starts And I know what they want. Can you get me? Can you help me? Actually part of my unit was killed in a rage and firefight protecting our base and it was on the news and They all went down they went out blazing man to the man. So half my units gone dead killed Yeah, it's trying to trying to defend the camp, you know the base And it did make the news. I know who they are. I know the camp Some people know who it is, but those guys are gone and there was only 42 guys in my puttune and And so I told my guys said man, you got you're gonna have to run for the hills But there's nowhere to go you said they as soon as they find out who you are and who you were working for your dead man In fact, there had one guy texted me hiding with his family literally texted me in hiding He said they're outside right now looking for me. What can I do? What are you? Oh, I don't know what to even tell you at that point, you know, I'm your Johnny on the spot But I just felt so bad because they were pleading with me to help them You know, I'm the guy that was always there for them leading them you know leading in the combat making decisions You know taking care of their welfare, you know, and I was I was the daddy man, you know, and suddenly daddy can't help them You know and I and it was and it really made a lot of guys mad You know my guys were like, you know Now you just kick us to the curb, you know chips are down. You just gonna leave us behind and unfortunately, I'm sure a lot of them are dead, you know since then They can't get out the roads are blocked are contained You know, it's yeah, it's pretty irritating man when I think about that. These are guys. Let me tell you how loyal these these Afghans were You know, I remember I had the same 42 dudes they were some of the best Afghans in Over there and we would go to do ops all the time in fact We had a two-man rule in Afghanistan a two-man rule stated that you know as an American you never go out without another American You always at least two Americans no matter what you do, right? But I broke the rule all the time I usually went out by myself with my guys That's how much I trust them in fact they would stand there and look at me go Mr. Dale Don't you worry? You know, we'll form a wall around you. We will not let anything happen to you And I knew they wouldn't I mean these guys would freaking get it on man and And I and I win their hearts and minds because I'm the guy that You know if something didn't go right, you know, hey take the day off. Here's a bonus, you know Now we had tons of money for these guys, you know, and I made sure I took care of him kept him happy and every time I Rotate it out for a vacation before I come back every time I left I'm the only guy that I can remember was they would actually have a formation and they would lay out all these things like war rugs Women's traditional women's Afghan dresses and you know kinds of you know cheesy jewelry and stuff You know all Afghan stuff for me and they'd bring me out front and center and they want to you know Thank me for you know mentor them and you know and the hell these gift the war rugs were really cool I still have those, you know, and they're very famous. So they said it's a rug. It's got tanks on it and missiles It's like handmade, you know and hand-drawn or it's kind of cool and So the guys actually really loved me and took care of me and I knew that I would never have to worry about these guys Turn on me. I trained them. I fed them. I paid them, you know, I was just because that's what you do You've got to be good to your soldiers man. You got to treat them like your brothers not like you know cannon fodder and And when this happened, you know and they're asking for my help and I'm totally helpless. I can't do anything I've tried and I just I almost thought I had some on an airplane and that fell through, you know They couldn't even get through the gates with the documents. Nothing man They were just left out hanging, you know high and dry and you know, I think back to Somalia You know So in Mogadishu remember right the big fire fight October 30 October 4th, and I remember on Yeah, yeah, and I remember The next morning Maybe October 6th or 7th something like that. I can't remember the exact day now Colonel Garrison at the time general Garrison in the in the movie black arc down He was the Delta Force commander Colonel Garrison Very good guy very good officer very well liked and he had a formation very early in the morning Like soon as the sun came up and from the hangars. He had all lined up, you know, and And I remember he said I still remember what he said he goes gentleman He goes war is nothing more than the extension of politics and he goes He goes as of today We are going to redeploy and go back to us operations are over and we're all standard just dumbfounded go and wait a minute We're still missing men don't miss in people, right? Bodies, you know, these, someone's going to lose an election in November though. You know, and this, remember, is Bill Clinton at the time of the, and we're all kind of looking at you going, wait a minute, as a soldier, you're required to complete the mission, right? That's expected. If you have a mission, your job is to complete the mission. Mission and then men, okay, that's the order. And we have a mission, our mission was to come there and basically kill or capture a deed, right? The warlord. That mission wasn't complete and moreover, we've already lost bodies and we can't find them, right? And there's people that need our help, Americans. And so what we expect as soldiers is that our commanders, including the commander chief, the president, Clinton, to have the same resolve to continue the mission and see it to its end. And he didn't, he said, no, we're going to basically, we got a bunch of nodes, we're going to go home. And I will, all these men are dead for what and why? So you can just quit and go home. We want to continue to campaign, at least get our bodies back, you know? And this guy just wants, he's done. Made no sense, right? And it's one of the few times where I really looked at, started looking at combat and war and differently, I started looking at the politics of it all. And sometimes I start questioning, I was like, you know, what is this all about, man, what do we do? Who am I, why am I doing this in? And then when Kabul happened, I go, there it is again. You know, we, we wasted so many lives, you know, wasted so many lives to what end? Nothing, nothing, nothing, right? So those are two occasions in my military career, you know, I'm 60 years old and I've been in the military since I was 18, you know, or working for the government in this capacity. Those are two incidents that really stand out and I'm like, wow, you know, the US government had no problem wasting lives, good men, and putting their families and their children out there without their fathers. And they didn't have the balls to complete the mission, the same thing they expect from us. If I didn't complete the mission, you know, I get hung out the dry, you know, I'm a shit bird for not doing my job, but they don't do their job, you know, and their excuse is what, what was the excuse? There's no excuse. You think there's a lot of guys in offices in DC that can make decisions from there, you know? Exactly, right? And so, you know, and, man, that's one of those things that really pisses me off when I think about it, is I think about the good men, like Gary, for example, Gary Gordon, you know, that are gone for what, you know, Mark, a friend of mine, who was Gary? Gary Gordon, Congressional Medal of Honor winner in Mogadishu, right? And others, I mean, they're dead now, you know, I mentioned the seal earlier who died a year after, you know, is adopted a little baby girl, you know? It's like, okay, for what? Why don't that happen, you know? Yeah, sadly, it is what it is. You know, war is a racket. And, you know, when people-- How do you stop that? You don't stop it. You know why I'll quote Gustav Lebonne. He said, "Man is a warring ape." We've been since the dawn of time, since the dawn of man, we've had over 12,000 wars. You know, this is our nature. Wars are our nature. This is what we do, you know? Why? We're driven by three things. In my estimation, power, money, and pussy. At the end of the day, procreation. Those are the three things that drive us, right? And we fight for that shit, right? And we kill for that stuff. It's really what it comes down to. And as long as, as long as it's power, there's money, and there's pussy, there's gonna be conflict, you know? And it's never gonna end. And so there's no utopia, get over it. So now what we've got to do is, if we can, first of all, we don't have to accept it, but just know this is a reality that combat and war is what it is. Prepare for it, but also know that life's not fair. And if you can at least come to terms with that, your life will be a little bit easier. You know, everybody wants to live in utopia, you know? Kumbaya, it's not gonna happen. It never happens, okay? Let's be realistic about it. So we're not gonna stop it. We're not gonna change it. You know, the best we can do is we've gotta, we've gotta rein in the decision-makers, the politicians. Those are the guys that are doing it, you know? You and I aren't going out starting fights. We're not gonna start wars. - But in order to rein them in, we have to rein in the people who really make the decisions on them, which is the people who pay them. - Exactly, exactly. So how do you do that? 'Cause again, and I'm not calling you out here anything. We need guys like you in the world, yeah. But, you know, you're, when you take contracts now, like, you're taking contracts from some of these companies or the governments who are backed by those companies and stuff. So how do you, if you know you're needed in so many of these situations, which I'll agree you are, where does the line stop to where you get to the point where guys aren't needed? And how do you determine that line? - Yeah, this is, for me personally, this is why I pick and choose what I do. This is why you won't find me in Ukraine. I ain't gonna have, I got nothing to do with that. You're not gonna find me in Israel. I got nothing to do with that. It doesn't affect my life. It doesn't affect the American way of life. You know, I pick and choose my fights. The stuff I've done, you know, if I'm gonna kill terrorists, I'm okay with that, because they're never gonna abate. And all I can do is become a speed bump for them, you know? So I pick and choose what I do. Yes, I wanna get paid, you know? I don't do it because the money's good. I make money doing it. Look, I got a security company already. - Right. - I don't need to go out and do this kind of work. - I never did need to do this kind of work. - Well, what makes you wanna do it? Like, when you get a job where you gotta go into a dangerous place, 'cause you said you haven't been in a war zone since 2015, but we talked about some other jobs off camera, which you make it into that you do. I mean, you're going into dangerous places for dangerous people sometimes, too. - To help people. - To actually help people. That's the thing. Actually, everything I do is to help people. And I get paid to help them, right? I mean, I've got, you know, I take a lot of risk. I mean, I've done the last four weeks. I've done at least four different projects in different countries that are not necessarily friendly countries, in fact, communist countries. And I've had to help people that were in trouble. They weren't criminals. They were just in trouble through no faults of their own. And I show up and I help them and I get them out. I don't go out and save criminals. I don't go out and save, you know, bad guys. That's not what I do. My job is to help those that can't help themselves and find themselves in a place where they're stuck. I have one guy that I won't mention the country because I may need to go back in there. But yeah, I have to be very careful how I couch this stuff. But I have one guy call him and he goes, "Hey, man, I've literally been, I've been locked in this country for five years." They put a travel ban on me and I say, "Why, what happened?" He goes, "Well, he had a girlfriend there." I'll start. - Yep, he had a baby. She didn't want to marry him. They got joined custody of the kids. She wouldn't let him see the kids. So we had to go through an enforcement agency there. By the way, this is a communist country. And he's got to pay the enforcement agency to make the arrangements so he can see his kids. He paid them, they didn't make the arrangements. He got mad. Came back and tried it again. He goes, "This time I'll pay you after you make the arrangements and they're like, no, you'll pay us first." He goes, "No, I'll pay you after you go." Yeah, I watched this and he literally put a travel ban on him, called immigration and locked him down. He wasn't a criminal, didn't do anything wrong. So he's not allowed to work and he can't leave the country. He can't do anything. So look, this happens a lot of different places. Okay, a lot of Southeast Asia, Asia, Middle East. I've done this before and it sucks. And again, we talk about our country and we need to think about how bad other people have in the world. Imagine being locked in. I call it a velvet cage, you can't get out. And he's like, "I've been here long enough." Man, he goes, "I want to get out." He goes, "I want to bring my son out." Who's five, and I say, "Well, that's gonna be different." I said, "I can get you out." I'm not sure about the kid yet. How would you go about getting out of guy like that? Like what's. It's pretty simple. What are you looking for? It's pretty simple. It's easy. You know what, look, you're not going through the airport. You're not going through immigration. That's never gonna happen. You're just gonna literally have to go across the border. And you gotta, that's the tricky part. How do you get them across the borders? And take them out to a friendly country and then work them out of there. So I do that. That's what I do. What goes in, so let's make up a couple of countries here 'cause you don't want to use that example, fair enough. Let's say you got a guy in. Trying to think of my geography here. Let's say you have a guy in Syria and he can't get out. And you need to get him into what's. What's the east of. Iraq's south, what's the east of Syria? What touches Syria? Is that Iran? No, no. East of Syria, you have Iraq and you have Turkey, you have. Turkey, okay. So you want to get someone out, that's perfect. You want to get someone out of Syria into Turkey, which we have some issues with too, but it's a little better. How are you determined and where on the border to take them? I'll cast you on what to do. Yeah, I'll tell you how it works. How I do it is one, to start with an intel analysis. So I look at the map studies and I look for potential crossover points. I look at border checkpoints. I look at things like traffic ability, population densities. A lot of things you have to consider, right? What you're looking for is a hole in the net in the fence that you go through undetected, right? And so that requires not just a map reconnaissance, you start with a map reconnaissance and then you need to do a ground reconnaissance. you should need to go put eyes on and confirm. that's this is doable. It starts with that and then it goes to developing a plan right which the plan can be pretty detailed in that you know you got to have a cover story cover for action cover for status why are you here and what are you doing oh I just came out here driving around the desert just to hang out you know or you know or I'm in the I'm in the uh what's the word I'm looking for I'm in the public park in the jungle just looking at the monkeys that actually happened to me that actually happened one time we were actually being tracked we had a tracker on our on our card to know it and we're going up north to the border and luckily there's there is a park there and it's all the jungle and we get the guy that have with me is getting a text message he goes hey are you guys going to the border oh shit how did I know that right so yeah in the final we got a track run I should know so now we got to figure out okay how do we what's the what's the plan for that so you do what we did I do what's called false insertions so I drive down different roads and different directions do loopy loops turn around park the car for I'll go to restaurant you know and oh no we're gonna go up here and meet some chicks you know and uh whatever right so everything is so if anybody is tracking you wish they are like on a GPS in a map then you know it's like these guys are idiots are all over the place you know what are you doing just driving around randomly you know but somewhere in that process the you drop off your your customer and you point him in the right direction or you take him across you walk him across you know walking to where he's got to go um but yeah then is it on them at that point sometimes um sometimes it requires more but usually the goal is to get him free um get him to where they can get to an embassy and uh whether it's an American or whatever embassy that you know whatever national I don't so you get to the embassy go hey man it's what happened to me you know passports burned lost whatever compromised and can I get a temporary passport to get out you know and go home so a lot of times people some people are you know they understand that it's like right Roger that you're American we're gonna help you know actually there's sometimes like and this happened to one of my clients not too long ago it's like Karen either everywhere Karen like oh my god that's illegal what you did you can't do that it's like bitch I was locked up for five years of a country I couldn't get out of for doing nothing wrong but want to see my son you know and you're worried about being illegal she's she's chewing she's chewing them up and down you know and uh Jesus Christ Jim it you know and so I'm I'm the I'm the opposite of like dude I'm gonna help you get out of there because I'd hate to be in that situation myself too you know and um do you talk with a potential client like that on open email no I was gonna say how are they contacting you now you know we use different you know there's all kinds of proton mail and I'm conscious but how do they know where you are is it usually someone that's connected to you they know people watch me they I mean I've been on so many podcasts and people know who I am right and they reach out they find a way to yeah it's easy to find me right I don't hide it you know in fact I think you can find my phone number on the internet um but uh yeah if you want to find me I'm reaching find easy piece I usually answer most emails anyways um but like I said I don't do nothing yeah you could call that illegal but you know there's fine line between you know the law and then what's doing what's right you know and sometimes it's just to me as matter doing what's right and uh and I've there's been there's several guys I know they're in this boat in different countries and it's not right they haven't seen their family their children in years you know um not because it was their fault just because of circuit stances the way it fell out they they got caught in you know remember when uh in 2010 Dubai you know boom man everything was going good and all of a sudden the bottom fell out you know there were a lot of guys a lot of expats that what happened in 2010 the kind of be crashed in Dubai okay everything went under badly and a lot of guys went over and invested started companies and then boom the bottom falls out and now they're not getting their money right and they owe money and try try going to that part of the world and get a speeding ticket and don't even know it and you show up the airport turn your rental car in and you ain't getting out until you pay that rental car right and stick it and they know and a pop your visa right there right so imagine you own a bank $500,000 or you owe a hospital bunch of money for something and all of a sudden you got no money coming because the economy crashed in from under you and guess what you're not going nowhere you're they pull your visa you travel your passport and you're locked into you pay and you can't work either by the way so you'll be walking around aimlessly in a country that's not yours no way to pay in no way to make money and you're like what do I do so I kind of have an issue with that because you know it why don't you just like the guy up you know this is kind of stupid right it's like it's like having a pet a pet dog you got I don't want to feed him no more to turn him loose on the side of the road and fin for yourself like what he's supposed to do he's not trained on he's just a dog he's the domestic dog right and you do this to an expert it's not an American theater all the time it's a lot of different nationalities that they caught up in these things and so now you gotta you gotta get them out you know and there's only limited ways to do it it's it's risky business I don't do much of it I'm not at my age I'm not prepared to kind of risk that much anymore I'm more content with just building my business and Indonesian doing what I do you know I do a lot of coaching it you know I've got to mention that one thing that I really do do the most and I like the most is I do what I call mind body engineering psychosome engineering and basically it's performance coaching I really delve into those in the world of the subconsciousness or any condition or linguistic programming self meditation self hypnosis all these things I go into that and I teach people how to enhance their personal performance as well as their professional performance and future performance that's what I really focus on how to be successful at anything that you do in life I think I have the resume to support that you know the success piece of it that's really what I enjoy doing and that's actually how I meet a lot of people because they see my posts my videos and like I want to talk to this guy a little bit more about this and that and that and wow and so I've actually got a lot of connections globally a lot of clients globally a lot of connections in different space so I mean I've got friends everywhere if I need them you know yeah and I've built a lot of business around that as well I'm into trading commodities stuff like I'm getting into oil trading stuff that's out of left field yeah so I wear a lot of hats man you know and you know I don't just I'm just not to use your sport and begin an assassin or mercenary no I'm actually I'm a security consultant advisor but I'm also that's what they call it these days yeah well yeah a con in combat I'm an advisor in the civilian world I'm a consultant right it's kind of weird but yeah but you know I'm a coach life coach that's kind of what I do primarily I'm an author I'm an actor I'm a stuntman I do a lot of different things you know I do trainings you know it's I can wear a lot of different hats dog trainer I had a guy pay me a lot of money just to fly back and forth to Singapore train his dog that's it yeah yeah we're nice vacation if we go with it for a week train a lot of money in Singapore right yeah they're loaded man it's gonna be expensive there too but it's one of those but yeah isn't that what wasn't the thing you were talking about before camera wasn't there that one story wasn't that client from there yeah yeah yeah that story that you refer referencing yeah I got a call from that that particular client fact so hey you know my daughters and Guatemala and she's in trouble can you get out she's 17 years old and basically it was a school trip gone bad she was going yeah it was a girl's school trip too they were 40 school I think they all graduated she was 17 and all the girls thought it's great idea let's go to Guatemala you know for graduation so I don't know who picked the the hostel that stayed at but uh man it was some spooky shit because I went there I had to go to get her suitcases after I already recovered her and so he basically asked me if I knew anybody could get her out there and I'm like well I wouldn't trust anybody to get her out because as soon as they know who you are and she is she ain't getting out until you pay a lot of money you know I said so I ended up going to get her make it long story short but down her picked her up I went on a Monday morning and by Thursday morning I delivered to Singapore put her hand to the limiter yeah you know yeah but uh that was that's actually pretty easy so I you know I put that in the in the recovery category I do recovery repatriation rescue operations as well um this one was a recovery you know where's the wildest place you ever did one of those man I can't tell you not that I want to I can't I see I have to that's okay to me mention Guatemala because I didn't do anything over the top right it just flew there big rug brought her out but the other stuff I got to be careful because I mean you go back you know that's fine um well where minus jobs like that or something to that nature without detail of that yeah is have you ever been somewhere where your legit spooked being there is there a country that comes to mind with that um yeah sorry Arabia why and it's a very strange culture. Let me tell you how, let me tell you how this, again, I'm talking about freedom and things like that. If you, let's say today, we say something negative about Saudi Arabia, right? Oh, that sucks, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, and you post on social media. And in five years from now, you go to Saudi Arabia. Do you know they can arrest you? - Oh, yeah. - For some of you posted five years ago, right? - So never going to Saudi Arabia. - Yeah, you're literally walking on eggshells when you go over there. And you know you're being watched. - What do you mean being watched? - Everybody's watching and they're listening, right? They're intel, everybody. You show up as a white guy, you know, or an ex-pat, especially an American, you know, you're gonna, people gonna pay attention to you. - Can they get your, can they wire in your iPhone? - When you land? - Probably. - Yeah, yeah, they got a lot of capability. You know why they got 'em? Because we gave 'em to 'em. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So, you know, you're not gonna escape all that. So you gotta be very careful what you do over there. Anything that could be construed as business. If you're on their tours passport and you do anything that could be construed as business, you could end up in jail right away, you know? And they can detain you as long as they want until they process it and pass judgment. Like literally, you could end up being an attention center for 10 years or two years. And nothing's happening. You don't get to talk to anybody and you're waiting for them to make a decision on, did you do something wrong or not? It's very scary place, very scary place. I do not like being there just because of that. You know, coming out, I remember I was leaving the country and, you know, they scanned my bags as I was leaving the country to go into the terminal and I had a key chain in my backpack that had a small, in fact, it had a small, if you could see this, this little metal gun here. - Oh yeah, yeah. - But that's size. It was a key ring and I have my house keys on it. It was in my backpack, Barry. I didn't even know it's still in there, right? And anyways, they found that. They pulled me in a secondary and they laid it out there and they're like, this is not allowed. This is illegal. - What? - Yeah, and I'm a shitting, right? And I'm almost gotten a pissing contest with you guys. Like, are you a freaking, are you an idiot? You know, because who am I going to kill with that thing? You know, and it was illegal, it was illegal. And he was really starting to, you know, starting to dress me down on this one. And, and I'm like trying to have a conversation. I said, no, this is my key chain for my house key. You cannot have this. This is, I'm getting on air, I'm leaving your country. And I started getting a little, you know, a little heated, you know, and I remember, minding myself, Comstock, you're not going to win, not in their country. - Yeah. - You know, shut up or you end up in that detention center, you know, for, for carrying a fire on through an airport. That's how they're going to dress, even though it's this freaking big, right? So I said, can I at least have my key off the damn thing? He kind of almost was hesitant to give me my key. I said, if I ain't got my key, you know, I'm getting the stupid thing, you know, I'm like, oh God dang man. I had a, I had another thing. It was a little, a little tiny screwdriver set. And the screwdriver's were like maybe an inch long. - Oh, try and take it on the plane. - Yeah, and my backpack, it's a little, it's not, it's not a web, you can't do anything with it, you know, unless they thought I was going to take it. - I think a guy like you could do something with that. - My God, dude, I could do more of this, the soup, but then I can't read anything else, man, you know. (laughing) The screwdriver, you know, we're, let me put this thing together and do something, Jill, some guy's way ahead. It's Jill, the doors, the knobs off the cockpit door. - Well, we know we can't do that. That, that we learned, yeah. (laughing) - Anyway, it just, yeah, a lot of lunacy out there, man, and you just gotta shut your mouth, respect the rules, and move out, you know, and sometimes I can be a little tough, you know, and some people can really grate your nerves with some of the crap, you know. That was one of the places I was a little uncomfortable with. Not, I'd say a lot uncomfortable with you. I always just felt like I'm always being watched, you know. And I just, there's other places I've been to, right, Noah's being watched. I know they had cameras in the rooms. Every time I show up in country, I stay in a hotel, they put me in the same room. - Oh yeah. - I mean, I already know that, you know, so. - You waving to all of them. - All right. - And dressing, you're doing a little show, you know. (laughing) - Yeah, there's, yeah. - A friend of mine has been going back and forth to Saudi Arabia a little bit, and, you know, he talks about some of the slight outward shifts in culture, there, you know, some women can drive now. They make its basic steps, I guess. But he talks about also how, you know, it is so, a lot of it is so beautiful and clean. And the price to that is that the level of strictness and what they do to people just taking them off the streets is the smallest thing wrong. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Scary. I mean, you, Jay walk. - Yeah, I would call it clean either, honestly. - Well, the place is he's been, I, I'll forget the cities he's been in, but the places he's been aren't like some of the more up, you know, upscale type destination places they're trying to show to people. - Yeah, they're actually inviting a lot of tourists in, right? Because I think what's happening, they're going to, well, the thing is starting to dry up, and they're trying to, - What do you mean? - Well, I think what's happening is, maybe they see the threat in the future of the electric cars, but there's a, for whatever reason, they're trying to attract more tourism. And I gotta be honest with you, we went there as tourists, and we went to all the tourist sites, and it was nothing there. I'm like, I thought there was something cool here to see, but there was actually nothing to see. I went to went castle, it was like, it looked like a sand castle in the beach that a kid built. I was like, that's it, that's the castle. It was like, they just kind of build this thing up real quick, you know? It's not even a good one, you know? It's just, yeah, I, yeah, I don't know what there is to see there. I didn't see anything with the waste of my time is what I did, but who knows? You know, maybe I didn't look, look hard enough. But I've been in a lot of bad places, I've been in a lot of shitty countries, I've been in some countries that are actually very surprised, like Vietnam, for example, it's a communist country, but I was actually surprised, man, how well organized it was, and people were thriving, and you know, people were some people driving really nice cars, and you know, people could do what they kind of want. You know, I had a lot of freedom. I was like, okay, it's not what I imagined, you know? Not at all, and I remember one time I was riding a motorcycle, and the porn rain, and I had to go a long way, I rode this bike for like 16 hours, man. And it was porn rain, I didn't have my punch, I pulled over to this little, whatever, little shop on the outside, little cafe thingy, and I walk in and it's porn rain, I asked the lady, I said, hey, you guys sell your punches? And she goes, no, I go, I just rain it, you know? And she didn't have, okay, she'll wait, wait, wait, she runs in the back room, and she brings out her own personal punch, you know? And she gives it to me, she's here, here, here. I said, that how much, how much? She goes, no, no, no, you like to pay it? I said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, okay, I said, I'll buy all that stuff, I wanna buy all that right there, you know? I bought some stuff and I gave her a whole bunch of money, you know, on top of that, you know? But I was actually surprised how nice she was to me. Like, wow, she, you know, but then there were other places I went to, like, especially the men, I go to the gas, I'm like, you know, the gas, you know? (burps) I'm like, no, I just want gas, you know? I was like, they had attitude, like, whoa, just, you know, gas, you don't fill it up. Here's the money, you know, it sounds like the gas station around here. Yeah, it's fine, you know, it's fine, you know, different. Maybe it was something personal, I don't know. But overall-- Yeah, you pull up and like, can I get some gas? It's like, they're fucking, they're pissed you pulled up. I'm like, are not paying you? Gas for what? Well, what, where do you get here? Fuck out here. No, they actually, I was actually surprised. That was one of the places that really surprised me. My wife wants to go there and I said, yeah, I'll probably take her back over there one of these days. But, it was mentioned in the car, Hong Kong was one of my favorite cities until the Chinese took it over. That was kind of a shit show. I was there in 2015 when the British handed Hong Kong back to China. And when I lived there, man, it was so cool, man. And, you know, everybody spoke English, you know. Of course, they spoke Chinese, you know, just seemed like a really cool place to live, very well organized, good infrastructure, transportation system. You know, the bridge had it, you know, so it's pretty square away. And then, when, and I was there when they were protesting, right, the protest started, oh my God, man. It was thousands and thousands and thousands of people on the streets waving American flags, American flags, right? Were you doing a job there at the time? I was protecting a billionaire, buddy guard. I was running security for a multi-billionaire investment banker. So I lived there in downtown. And I watched these parades, all day, you know, whatever, just demonstrations. And, you know, it was amazing. They were literally, you know, you know, flying the don't tread on me flags, you know, the yellow two A, you know, American flags, you know, I'm like, wow, and they're asking, they wish they had, you know, the second amendment because they're disarmed and they're just going to get taken over whatever Chinese government's going to take over. And I knew they're going to be doomed, man. I felt really bad for them because they're actually really cool people and good people. And then, once all that happened, that transition happened. I went back a few times. And it was so different. They took English out of the schools. A lot of the rural people now came to the city, you know, they're selling their, their, their wares and stuff. And they can't speak English. They don't want to speak English. It just seemed like, yeah, it just didn't seem a very, like a welcoming place anymore, you know? Thank you guys for checking out this clip. If you haven't already subscribed, please subscribe and hit the like button on this video. It is a huge, huge help. And if you'd like to check out this clip, full podcast episode that link is in the description below or right here. And finally, you can follow me on Instagram and X by using the links in my description below.