Episode 177 | "I Was a Good Sailor, I Promise" (Feat. Madison Farr)

The following views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent the views of DOD or its components. Pay attention, because you are now listening to Permission to Speak Freely. Freely. Freely. Freely. Freely. Freely. I'm trying to cross the room, bro. I can't call it a code open this time, because we've shot this shot already. Oh, man. Hey, we joined by Madison Farr. What's up, Madison? How you doing? Yeah, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. I'm doing okay. It's 14 degrees outside right now where I am. I'm at DC. It's 26 degrees where I am. Where you at? North Carolina. North Carolina. What part? We could say Burlington, but I live in the country, so I live in Sticks. oh so you're out in the 6th yeah and we and we are everybody on i guess this side of america is getting ready for the storm of the century yeah yeah cars are like wound up outside of markets and traffic is crazy and gas stations are full yeah and we supposed to get where i'm at they like yeah we're gonna work on tuesday i'm like the way people shopping the way people like Y'all can't survive without doing that for one day. Like the way people shopping is like, we're about to be snowed in for a whole month. Damn. They talk about the schools are not going to be open all week. I just, so it's 14 degrees. I just ran outside, right? I'm fresh in the house from running outside to go get some ice melt or salt, whatever you may call it. And the first thing that I want to talk about is the power of boutique stores. So last night, going around looking for Ice Milk, and it's none available. All the stores, Home Depot, Lowe's, all the big franchise companies, none available. Today, in the Neighbors app, which is super clutch, somebody's like hey such and such on such and such has ice melt like go get it so i go there family store man family owned operated type spot uh is i walk in the store it's a cat in there and it's still family owned operated i don't know if it's a stray or it's a family cat nothing on the neck right so i go and i um and the dude's like hey i can bring it to your car just go in and pay for it. So boom, go in. They got a little lounge area. None of this is, when I say lounge area, I'm not talking about a nice hotel type thing. I'm talking some thrown together, fucking furniture, a TV somewhere, some crates, just somewhere where that family just chills that way. Ain't no customers, right? So I pay, I leave, pull my car back, dude throws the salt in my trunk And I helped him with the other one, but he was doing that for everybody that was coming around. And he was like, all right, I'll see you next time. And I was like, you're right. You will see me next time. This is the only place I'll ever come to for salt, right? Because they did it. And the last experience I had like that was I got one of those chip keys for my car, medicine, and it broke. It like broke. It was old, right? I had the car down for like 10 years and I guess I pressed the hell out of my damn, you know, my key thing. Right. I just my killing that. Right. So I had to get a new one. So I like but I went to a mall and they did the keys and it was looking like I was about to spend like 400 some dollars. Right. It's like just with all the charges and all the things they want to do. I'm like, yo, but what if I get the key from Amazon? Because I had already ordered a key. I'm like, yeah, I ordered a key already. But it's like, yeah, even if you order the key for us, the programming and all this stuff, we're still going to charge you $250 or whatever, right? I'm like, okay, cool. And me, I'm not one to like search far and wide for the best bargain or deal. But I held off. I held off. And I'm like, all right, let me see what else I could do. Matter of fact, I used ChatGPT. And ChatGPT was like, yo, it's cheaper ways to do this. Boom. So I found a locksmith in my neighborhood. And I go to the locksmith because you got to get the key cut after you buy it, right? So I go to locksmith to get the key cut and then they cut the key and I'm like, well, do you program it? Because I need to go take it to get it programmed. And that's going to cost me like $125. That's like, yo dude, all you need to do is put the key in the ignition and turn it like a half a turn one way or something and it's going to be programmed. He's like, they like, don't pay for that. I'm like, for real? What? I'm like, all right, well. That's crazy. I didn't know that. Yeah, depending on what car you got. He was like, it's going to take like eight, It's going to take a half a second. And then I went out there and did it. And it worked. And my key was programmed and I was ready to go. And it's like, hey, there you go, man. And I was like, yo, let me get one of them business cards, man. Yeah, man. It's the only place that I'm coming to. You know what I'm saying? I'm with you with that, though, Dumb. I'm the same way, man. When somebody look out for me for anything, man, they my go-to, man. Like I hit them up, call them up. They'd be the go-to, man. Them mom and pop stores most definitely be some go-to's for adding a clutch. Yeah. Hey, Madison, we got one more thing we have to do before we do anything else. So we had an episode last week. And I think we really, really covered down on clarity and all that stuff, right? But we had an episode last week and we were talking about PFA standards. And I had, just so the listeners know, when I'm talking about something like that out of a policy, I had a graphic that I was referring to the whole time. And we had a guest on. And I'm going to be honest, y'all, I shortchanged the guest. He took ownership and all that, but I shortchanged him in a way because I kind of put him on the spot to talk about something. And he went off the top of his head and going off the top of his head, he made a couple errors and kind of trying to remember whatever it was that he was talking about. And those two things were about like if you weigh on a scale, if you get weighed on a scale, and you do, you get weighed on a scale regardless of whatever happened. You always step on a scale. And then the other one was about where the waist measurement is. And the waist measurement is on a belly button. But again, salute to Troy, man. Troy, he stepped up. He took it. But also putting somebody in this environment, having them talk on a podcast, putting them on a spot. I know how I wouldn't want to be put on a spot about certain things. And so he just kind of got put on a plank and made a couple mistakes. And they were the only two that came out of that. So I want to salute him and salute our listeners who jumped on YouTube and was like, yo, it's important that y'all get this right. So I think we, you know, I think we did a decent job at making sure we let everybody know. But for the listeners who might not see us on YouTube or follow us on social media, I wanted to make sure y'all knew. Right, Damon? Yeah, most definitely, man. And also back to the listeners, man. Like you're right. Troy doubled down on it, man. He came on. He talked about it. but for the listeners man I want to thank you guys too man because I have looked in comments before man it was real ugly right but these comments was good man they was like right on spot they was you know doing the things that I look forward to seeing in the comments man like they weren't being ugly about it they would just say we need to get this right and that was pretty cool man so shout out to the listeners yeah and just so y'all know Madison came on here because she said we need some E4 and Junior representation. And we do. This is true, yeah. We do. I mean, we'd be backing for it, Madison. We'd be backing for it, but they, you know. They might be. You know, I felt like a lot of people are scared to do it, E4 and below because they may feel like they get reprimanded or they don't know a lot as, you know, Chiefs may do. I feel like a lot of people probably think that way as well. Shit. Yeah. shit hey man it's 2026 ain't nobody scared no more they need to come on on here talk to us man smart some people are you know they were going they are people were going to car on tiktok and be you know complaining about getting corrected about the ball cap or something that they said you know but you're here right and like what was your what's your rundown what's your career rundown like where I stationed and what I did so So I joined in 2020, I mean, in 2018 in September, shipped out to bootcamp, craziest thing in bootcamp, you know, loved it. Went to a school for six months in San Antonio. Then I went to Quantico, Virginia temporarily for six months after my school. Then I went to Charleston, was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina for two years. Left there in 2021. I was actually supposed to follow my ex-husband to Greenside. But instead they're like, this is happening. You need to pick your orders today. And it has to be a ship. I was like, all right. So then I went to the Ford and stayed there until 2024. Yeah. And you were in HM. Yes. So what's HM for you? What's HM life on a big deck, right? So I was on a big deck for a little bit. And it's damn near like a hospital to me, like a mini hospital. and then it was this whole thing about which door you can knock on and number you can call and all that weird stuff but on a small boy I know exactly what it is right you got your IDC you got an HM 2 or 3 or something helping out your IDC and maybe another what was your experience on a big deck as an HM it was definitely something I would say that I loved it but it also it was very draining but it's cool because you're the hospital of the strike group so like anything the strike group needs they get flown over to the carrier it's cool because you have so many corpsmen you have so many different NECs and then for quad zeros you can do a lot of stuff so when you do coverages for like MAs you can shoot the guns if they let you I personally worked on the flight deck love my air people so I worked on the flight deck on my ABHs. Love Crash. Shout out to Crash and Salvage. Okay, okay. Yeah, but it was definitely a fun time. Yeah, so what was... So carrier first time. So carrier was your first ship, right? You said you did Quantico for a little bit, but your first ship was on the carrier. So what was that like for you, just your first experience? And this, like my first time going on a ship was in 07 or something like that, but you, you know, your first time going on a ship was like 20, what, 2020 or something like? 2022 you said 2021 yeah so when i first got there we were actually in the yards they haven't they um it was i got there right after they went out for shock trials so they came back to the yards we stayed in the yards for a little bit it was i didn't like being in the yards you know they're doing hot work all the time you gotta wear a helmet your glasses um and then we finally set out to go underway every couple of weeks and we worked up until we went on the first appointment yeah oh so you actually went on that inaugural kind of maiden voyage we did yeah so we went we went on like a mini deployment for that two months that we did in 2022 then we came back and then we left for actual deployment in 2023 in may hey Madison how was the the environment for the yards how was everything like that whole that whole thing like was you You had your own house. You stayed in the barriers. Where was that? How did that go? When I first got there, I was separated. So my ex-husband was he couldn't come with me yet. So I was I actually was living with a friend. And then I had to find an apartment my own. But the environment was fine. I never lived in on the ship while I was in the yards. yeah well you know it's like a whole it was a it's been a lot of talk about just being in the yards but but it definitely is hard because even when i did my 24-hour duties sleeping in medical itself was was rough because they were redoing the hangar bay like the nonce get up there grinding doing hot work it was it was really rough so i couldn't imagine living inside like in the racks in the birthing in the yards the whole time yeah and then so you come into a you're young and I'm gonna get right to it cuz it's something that we deal with. It's something that I'm dealing with at my command and just trying to healthy courtship and dating habits for young men, period, right? In the Navy. When I was a young sailor on my first ship, we had whenever a young lady would come to the command, we called them the WAC, right? We called them the welcome aboard committee. It'd be a group of dudes, people trying to see who get her, whatever. And I mean, it hasn't really changed from that, right? So I'm creating some programs now where I'm at to help some of our younger sellers just understand. They always have things that gear to women and things that might gear to groups. But I want to do something just to help some of the young men understand healthy courtship habits and what you can and can't do. What was your, and we don't get from women that experience with that a whole lot, especially nowadays. What was your experience coming onto a ship as a separated? Honestly, I don't think the young men would have cared if you separated, married, whatever, right? But what was your experience with that? I didn't really have an experience where people were trying to get with me, whether I was separated or married at first. It's just everyone was welcoming no matter who if it was male or female. But nobody really, I guess, tried to hit on me while I was separated or trying to date or trying to do this. I would say I didn't really have an experience when I got on the ship at first. Oh, that's great. That's really and I'm actually happy to hear that. Were you afraid of anything going on that carrier? I was afraid of the not knowing. I was like, this ship is huge. Like, I just, you know, I don't know what to expect. I don't know what to expect when we go underway. Like, what are we going to do? What are we going to see? How long are we going to be gone for? Yeah. Where do you work there, Madison? Flight tech. Oh, flight. So I worked in medical. So I worked in BMR, like where you do the physicals, where you do, yeah, the flight tech physicals, all that. But, um, whenever, so we had rotations, so I would work every other day on the flight deck when we were on deployment. Yeah. Why did you join in the first place? Um, because I didn't have nothing going for myself. I was sitting in my weightlifting class and cause I had played basketball at the time. I was a, I was a junior, I think, I think it was a junior or a senior. Um, and a recruiter came by that day and was just talking to the class. Never had any thought about joining the military Navy ever. and I was like it sounds pretty cool so I just took it by myself and then did the paperwork and they said they needed my mom to sign and I was like hey mom I want to join the Navy like can you come and sign the paperwork tomorrow and she's like what? so yeah how moms feel about that? she was shocked nobody in her family joined the military ever so I was the first person so she was kind of shocked I didn't know what to think about it but she was happy for me that I wanted to do something that's good Were you already planning to get out? And like after you did one term or you did two? I did one. Were you always planning to get out after one? No. What made you get out? I had kids. So I was pregnant with my daughter when I got out. But I was like, you know, I feel like I need to move on, start a different life. My grandparents are getting older. I wouldn't be able to be there if something were to happen to them. And my kids, I want them to grow up. instability and not having to move around every three to four years yeah so overall you had a positive experience um and maybe like 100 positive like no no like i would i would say like i don't know 70 all right so what's the 30 yeah let's go madison let's go so you know i'm not i'm not proud of things that i something have done but i did get in trouble a few times one was in charleston it was on New Year's Eve. Me and about six or seven other people, including my ex-husband at the time, we were doing a New Year's thing and most of us were drinking, decided to take a drive to the back of the barracks. It was like a mile long strip of back road. Our friend was drunk and he was driving, wouldn't let us have the keys, so he said whatever. Three people sitting in the bed of the truck. The rest of us were sitting in the cab. We were headed back to the barracks. So it was around, I don't know, one in the morning, decided to do 60 miles an hour on a dirt road. We slid off of the dirt road, hit the ditch, went up in the ditch, hit three trees, hit the last tree. Through one of our shipmates, through two, well, my ex-husband got thrown out of the bed of the truck and one of our shipmates got thrown about, I don't know, half a mile into the woods and he died. Wow. Yeah. So most of us ran except for a couple people. I ran myself because I was scared and I didn't see anything, you know? So I didn't know what had happened. I was in shock, so I ran. Next day, we got investigated by NCIS and got in trouble about nine months later. And I actually got pregnant. I don't know. I was pregnant at the time that the crash happened that I didn't know. So I got massed when I was eight months pregnant. Yeah. Yeah. So that happened in Charleston. and that actually, when I told you that my ex-husband was supposed to go greenside when he was transferring, they actually tried to get him in trouble a year later for underage drinking. So that's what paused his greenside orders to go with the Marines and they were like, you got to pick your orders today because he can't go. I was like, okay. But that's why I went to the ship. Man, that's sad as hell. Yeah. I wasn't even like... I wouldn't expect me either. Yeah, it's something I'm not proud of. Yeah. The person who passed away was a friend? Yeah, it was a friend of all of ours. He was only 19. First command as well. He's only been there for a couple months. He was a great dude. And yeah, so I'm tragic. And the driver of the truck, he went to the brig for two and a half years, and then they kicked him out. yeah and how old were you at the time i was 19 was he was everybody drinking mostly everybody i wouldn't say like the driver was definitely drunk another person uh two more people were definitely drunk i wasn't drunk to the point to where like i didn't you know i couldn't walk or nothing i just had a few sips of the beer but you know still counts when he was drinking and the person that was sitting beside me the female I actually think I saved her life because I told her that night I was like you need to find your seatbelt because she wasn't going to wear a seatbelt she was like I don't have one I was like this truck has a seatbelt for you so put it on in case you forget into an accident and so we got into an accident and yeah now question for you right because we talk about this all the time and everybody was 18, 19 before. And you're 18, 19 somewhere, right? You could be 18, 19 in college, you could be 18, 19 in the street, or you could be 18, 19 in the neighborhood. And you're going to do 18, 19 year old shit, right? You don't mind if we curse, do you imagine? Okay, all right. You're going to do 18, 19 year old shit, right? So my question for you though is like you to us, right? Us as leaders, you as somebody who was recently a junior seller, is it anything that you think that leaders can do to get ahead of underage drinking? I don't know because I feel like if they want to do it, they're still going to do it. No matter how many safety briefs you have, no matter how many conversations you have with them, no matter how many people get DUIs, I think people are still going to do it. I necessarily, because on the ship, they always pass out like with these cards that you can call a number and they can come and pick you up. I forgot the name of it. I think those are really helpful. But trainings and talks continue to have them. Other than that, I think that, you know, you guys try to prepare us for as much as you can. And then whatever we do with that information, the rest is on us. so I think you guys are doing a great job as it is yeah I guess it's not always and whatever you're going to say hold it because I want to hear it I guess it's not always like people been drinking before the Navy some of these people start drinking like because of their friends right or they think it's cool or they're like oh yeah I just want to you know get in with a topic or I just want to sit and chill and then I have nothing else to do. So I just drink with you. Why not? Yeah. Yeah. What was it that you was about to say that you didn't get to say? That, you know, I think it's, there's nothing you can really do to prepare people, you know, for underage drinking or for incidents that happen. I think people are still going to do it regardless of how much you try to help them. If they really want to do it, I think they're going to do it. Yeah. And I'm also assuming that like the influence of like great leadership is not more powerful than the influence of your peers because at the end of the day they're going to be like oh my chief don't know what he's talking about you know my hmon or whoever like i'm smarter they don't know what i'm gonna do like i'm fine i could drop home yeah it's always like that yeah and you with your peers way more than you would like a great leader right you with the great leader maybe depending on who it is it could be like your cmc you might have you might have 20 minutes like 20 like one to one minutes with your cmc in a week or something like that where you got hundreds of you know minutes with your friends you know whatever it is y'all talk about and stuff like that yeah yeah but hey now one more other thing too man is the fact that when you are 18 and 19 man sometimes you feel invincible right you be like hey go ahead for my khakis to go ahead and put this stuff out it's like a check in the box, right? It's like a check in the box. They said this, said that now I'm going to go out and do this. But it always, when it happened to me, though, this ain't going to happen to me. I heard this DUI over there. I heard they got in trouble over there. It's not going to happen to me until it happens to you. Until it happens to you, man. It just don't look as cool as it looked as cool as it looked before, right? Like, I said it before, like, pissing in the middle of the building. now when you're out there getting massive in front of the co yeah don't look that cool when you gotta explain that to a bunch of chiefs at drv man all restriction yeah like no i i learned you know then it's always that at drv too medicine is like i learned i learned man i learned when did you learn when you got caught you know it's like oh man like i got too much to lose and i always tell people like, yo, like before you make a decision, think about what you got to lose, right? Before you do that. I was just telling somebody the other day, I do that now, right? I mean, I'll jump out the window still, but if I jump out the window, I can stand by it. Like I've decided that, you know, I've decided that I'm going to die on this hill. And now for me, it's normally like, it would be for my sellers, right? Like I would engage, I would engage with somebody in a way that they wouldn't expect. I would do something, but it'd be for my sellers or the safety of my sellers. Probably like a, like, and when you think about like Captain Crozier, what he did during, you know, COVID or something like that, like some of that nature, I would do it and be able, and not saying I would do it. Captain Crozier did for the Navy that's listening, but some of that nature, I would do it for the sake of my sellers and take whatever, you know, comes along with it. What's your, what's your, what's the next thing? How many times you... I got in trouble twice. Twice. Okay. Yeah. So the next time was on the ship. I got in trouble for suspected fraternization. They didn't have... There was no proof of nothing. You know, I didn't get treated differently. Nothing is simply because me and my LPO, we didn't like each other. And a lot of the... I did disrespect a lot of the first classes that I worked with because they never knew what they were talking about. In my opinion, they did not know what they're talking about ever. And I couldn't stand it because they were just lost in the sauce 24-7. And so we constantly got into arguments. And I know every sailor is like, oh, well, it wasn't my fault. I take responsibility for this. This is, you know, I had a lot of help to get where I was getting to. but I got in trouble for that and after I got in trouble it was right, it was the second day we got on deployment, I got masked or I went to talk with the chiefs and the DRB, I didn't say anything, went to X and Y, went to Caps and Mast, got masked, so the CO cut me a break, it was like, I'm gonna give you 45 days restriction where, what is it where I don't have to do it I forgot the name of it suspended yeah and he suspended my six months pay but if you get in trouble again then you're gonna go in restriction and you're gonna lose your rank so I was age in three got maps in 2022 I was like okay then I did something that I thought should have stayed within medical so I left the medical desk because I worked night shift I went to go work out at around midnight One of my leaderships came down and was like, where's Farah? And they came up, ran up to me, was like, yo, our leadership's looking for you. And I was like, what? Because they're supposed to watch the front desk phone. Yeah. In case somebody were to call. But I left. It could be like an emergency, right? Yeah. Uh-huh. yeah I left I was just like I'm going to work out I don't got nobody to watch the front desk because I usually do squadrons there with me work at night as well couldn't find anybody so I came running down they chewed me out told me to put my uniform back on I was like yes chief next morning down there legal sign of the paperwork sign of the paperwork restriction lost my rank my friends so I was friends with squadron on the ship Those are my people in medical. They're like, let's take a picture. The day that you have HM3 and the day after you're HM. I was like, bet. So that's what they did. They took a picture where I had my rank and then lost it. What an experience. That's a good experience, man. So then I went on restriction for 45 days. Oh, I thought it was overall 45 days. Then after that, I had a hard time with my OPO. then I didn't get to go on the next Liberty after I got off my restriction after that I scheduled an MWR okay didn't sign out of the Liberty log in my in my section because I didn't think I needed to going in the MWR tour I was being serious I didn't think I needed to because I'm going with a whole MWR group and so I honestly didn't think so I'm in the flight deck BDS on my phone and one of my HM2s calls me and is like where are you Sam on the ship why they're like well you need to come down here right now my LPO see me in the hangar bay leaving to go to the MWR trip didn't say anything to me waited till I came back on the ship flipped through the delivery log in our section and was like oh I don't see her name and then took it to my chief and was like oh she violated the Liberty Buddy policy she gotta stay on the ship so what they did is they took it to the Chiefs I explained to my HM1 he wanted to talk to me about it I explained to him I said HM1 like I promise you I did not know he was like alright I got you he vouched for me to stay on the ship he said she needed to be on the ship because she violated it so I was stuck on the ship for a good like 6 months 7 months you was on thin ice in that division it was so bad you was going hard Madison? Hey, so question. Why didn't you talk at DRD? Because I didn't think the Chiefs would have cared what I had to say because they had already told me in my investigation when they were doing the investigation that if it looks like it then it is. I had 20-ish people that were going against me in the investigation. They were like, how do you only have 10 people going with you and 20 against you, if there's more, then it's obviously, you know, something's there. Yeah. And I didn't feel like there was a need because no matter what, I was, I knew I was still going to X or Y. So what's the point in explaining? Was it something there? No. Because because nothing happened on the ship. I never got treated differently. I did everything myself. Did y'all have a relationship? well we do now yeah we're together but on the ship okay so i thought you meant like on the ship yeah there was there was definitely something there like i'm at div no it's i mean we're together now so there was definitely something there but work relationship wise there wasn't like he never he never held my hand through anything he never treated me differently he wrote my evals as he should be so i think that's where fraternization is kind of wronged because We never kissed, held hands in front of people, stuff like that on the ship. I mean, not everybody agrees with frat, like the frat policy, right? That's one of those things that some people passionately got issues with is frat. It's this aspect that love is love. You can't control it or whatever. And maybe if that happens, then let's figure out moves to make and stuff. I never really think about it like that I've had an experience Myself One But I never really Pay too much Attention to How I feel about the policy How do you feel about the policy Dan? Well I think the Big I think the biggest part about the policy That I do think about is What other people think right that was a that was a big one for us that was a that was a I think the biggest thing like regardless if you are not doing anything you're not holding hands you're not doing anything it's what that person thinks why you got a good evaluation oh I know why she got a good evaluation you know I think that part of it um yeah and no matter how much you think you're not doing people know yeah no matter how slick you think Well, that's, you know, that's, sorry. I'm listening. Okay. That's the thing that we got told a lot is perception is reality. Watch out for everybody because they're going to be gunning for you. You know, that's a big thing. We're like, I don't care because I know that we're not doing this in public. I know what we do. And I know that everything we do in the workspace is workspace related. And I didn't. I didn't think you could hear it. I'm so sorry. It's like leader, it's nerve-wracking too. If you're in a leadership position doing it, the nerves are feeling like it's like a thin ice kind of thing, feeling like either the person that you're messing around with going to feel a certain kind of way. And depending on who it is, they might, depending on what it is that you do, And then also like the person, the other people that might know or might not know or might suspect the way they react. It's just such a hard thing. It's a hard thing to be a part of and thinking about on your conscience, like just every single word that you say, you know, especially if it's like the same division kind of deal. like I said, I've had a small experience and it was you know very, very, very like very nerve wracking. Yeah, when we did our investigation a lot, everyone that did it didn't know that I would be able to see what they were saying. And I knew that I was going to be able to read everything based on the first time I got in trouble because I could read everybody's interviews that they had. And so And so a few people did lie About what they seen And so they saw more things They saw us like Kissing in the hallway or holding hands in the hallway Like the pee way at lunch And I said are they crazy Why would we do that when we're in a line Waiting for an hour for lunch I said you're insane And so then A few people did lie And so I had my LPO And another ex-LPO He was actually leaving soon their interviews were the same side by side same word for word which i thought was the craziest thing ever um and she was the one that didn't like me and that was hard for me after i got in trouble because i'm like how can i still work with these people that said these things about me and some of them weren't true yeah and so i did i did confront them and they're like what are you talking about and i'm like what you did what you mean yeah yeah i feel madison we gotta start screaming our guts man i'm sorry i don't want nobody to like you know talk to the e6 all crazy and stuff but i was talking about hm1s the crazy and stuff because a lot of them were crazy but um a few of them were hm1s and i was like why did you talk to me like why did you say this about me and they're like what are you talking about I said you talk about some crazy shit I said that didn't happen they're like well I was just saying I thought it was happening I was like okay and you know that's and they were just shots that like I talked sorry I didn't mean to me but they were just like shocked that I seen it like but y'all well like so you got out he stayed in he got out So y'all both got out. Yeah. After that. After a contract. Yeah. It's a sad thing because I think you guys had an episode about, I don't know, seven months ago. Where you guys were talking about how sometimes I think you guys don't really agree that your chain and command can influence you in getting out or not. It's based on the sailor themselves. I think you guys were talking about that. and I disagree with that a little bit I think the chain of command can definitely influence a sailor in staying or getting out depending on the command now you gotta tell us what we were talking about I'm saying I remember I resonated with this episode so fully I was like I can see where they're coming from but you guys were talking about how sometimes chain of command can make or break a sailor and you guys didn't necessarily agree with that the chain of command can break a sailor it's it's based on the sailor themselves like what they do how you know how they go about it on like don't let them break you type shit yeah yeah i mean that that was how i that was i'm interested with damon guy but that was like nobody right so before i before i joined the navy my uncle he gave me this story he was like uh don't let anybody make you mad. He's like, don't let nobody dictate how you react or how you feel about something. So I kind of went into my experience in the Navy with that said. And I know it's different strokes for different folks and all that thing, all those things. So sometime when I say that I'm projecting. So for me, nobody could dictate my experience based over who I am, right? I've always in every environment that I've been in, found a way to lead. Even if I was in the back, even at Wendy's, you know what I mean? I found a way to lead some kind of way. So if I'm in Gotham City, I'm going to clean that shit up. No matter what rank or what age I am, if I'm in that bad environment, I'm going to make it better or the way that I want it to be, because I want to live my life on my terms. So that's kind of like my, and I think Damon has something on that too. Yeah, and my thing is, I'm 50-50 on that, to be honest with you. But I'm leaning towards Domo a little bit. I mean, ain't nobody going to like, I'm not getting upset and going to make my determination on getting out by somebody else. But I have seen sailors in some horrible situations. you know what I mean with their chain of command in their divisions in their departments and stuff like that and I'd be like man it's bad over there you know and then once and then the other side of it is you got to think about like if you own your first command and first ship and you have to do five years right and if you got to do five years on there and you've been on there for three and it's horrible like it's kind of like you know you probably already made your mind up too though I'm getting out, I can't do this no more so I do understand that too that point of it but I always say too man every command is different too though Madison before you say anything my last thing because I'm interested in your rebuttal on how you felt about what we said in that episode 7 months ago but before you say anything my other thing is this that I think is underutilized from a bunch of sellers period Like, I can't live in filth. I was just telling one of my sellers just the other day, like, I'm not living in filth, right? So if it's fucked up and I can prove it, I'm going to prove it, right? So a lot of what I see now from, especially a lot of sellers that reach out to us because we do the pod or whatever, is things that they might be struggling with, right? And they'd be like, yo, my first class is just fucking with me, you know? And it's like it's unbearable, whatever, whatever. I'm like, well, did you talk to the chief? And they're like, well, chief got to know. You know, I'm like, yeah. But did you talk to the chief? Well, the chief got to know. All right, well, all right. So if chief knows, it's like, well, did you talk to your DLCP? Did you talk to your DLCP? Oh, well, the DLCP went on it, too. All right, well, did you talk to your CMC? And sometimes it's like, man, I ain't talked to the CMC yet. Or sometimes it is like, well, I did talk to the CMC. All right, what about your XO, your CO? Are they tracking? like all right if they tracking then did you did you do an ig like did you so i think like my thought process a lot of a lot of a lot of us man don't know the processes by which you escalate these issues so we live in this tyrannic fucking second class that's like fucking up your life every day and making you depressed when you could get this person like if you have if it's not like hey i just don't like this person because they like mean or something but if you got tangible shit and these people are really fucked up actions could be taken i don't think a lot of i don't think a lot of sellers i think some people be and i'm gonna shut up in a second i promise but i think some people be like so loyal to the soil like that they just living with the shit like they not trying to get nobody in trouble like i ain't trying to get my division in trouble whatever it's like dude like oh no i'm trying to get people in trouble you know yeah so what was your was your thing with all that what we were saying though I'm interested so when you asked if I ever had plans of getting out I said no because I didn't and right before I got in trouble I had already had a hard time on the ship as it was before I got in trouble I was actually supposed to re-enlist and right the day before my re-enlistment date I went to my senior chief I said senior if I'm going to get in trouble for this and you know what's wrong I'm canceling my reenlistment and I'm getting out Little I said and I knew I was getting in trouble Cancel my reenlistment She was like why are you canceling I said I already told you I said I'm getting in trouble I'm out I said I had a hard time like nobody's helping me here And So They did my chain of command Was not that great senior chief Loved her but my H1 and my chief They did influence they had a big influence On me getting out because it was already hard dealing with it and already had another year to go and I was like I just can't do it anymore and I didn't want to have to go through that again so I just decided to just ride it out and just to get out yeah it's not it's not what I wanted but you know I felt like I was better off but now you go to the command right so let's go back to you going to command right so you go to command and it's I mean a normal kind of inception into a command like first day, month, whatever, in a command. What's the moment where things get to where it's like, this ain't working. This ain't the thing that it should be. The moment that my H1 became my LPO. How was it before that? We had, our IDC was actually our LPO. And typically IDCs aren't supposed to be an LPO on an aircraft carrier because they already have so much work to do. so we were just actually short in staff so they made that they made him that position and then she came in and she was actually supposed to be in Dental at the time but they're like we need to know HM1 so she came in she recently knew HM1 I knew people that knew her and they said she sucked beforehand so I already kind of knew yeah but you don't know yet right? I don't know because she's HM1 so we're going to ride out and see but she just wasn't like the hard hitter HM1 she was like oh for sure like I'll check it out never got back to you chits would sit on her dash for two months at a time never be looked at never be signed she just wasn't leading and she wasn't taken care of I know there's great to use in great HM1s but she wasn't the type of HM1 to take care of her sailors she took care of herself she was trying to get herself to the next step not her sailors and that that was a hard part for me because i didn't want to go to her for anything nothing i mean that was out the gate was that out the gate or did like it took you know it took months after she became first class because at first we had a few issues here and there disagreements and a couple times i would kind of talk back to her and then i would have to bring myself back down and I would be like, hey, can we go talk? And then I would apologize to her and say that I apologize for doing this. I didn't mean any kind of way. I was just upset because of this and this. I apologized to her multiple times on multiple occasions throughout the next six months and nothing changed. She was still treating me differently than she'd treat other people. And also too, I think some of it was also based on my race. I don't think race is talked about enough either. But I do think some of it was based off my race. And that's in my own opinion. Just what I witnessed for myself. So she was black? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But what our section needed was a hard-hitting HM1 who cared about their sailors, took care of them, wanted to do good. But the problem with promoting, I think the problem with having a new HM1 come in as a straight in as a LPO and no HM1 experience is stuff that I had to go through. Not doing chits on time. She thought that she kind of didn't have to obey the regulation or the instructions. I remember one time she had white nails like white fake nails on and I'm pretty sure you can't have that and you know when you have a shoe I'm pretty sure aren't your shoes supposed to be black in the instruction aren't they supposed to be like solid black when you gotta wear sneakers not necessarily really I thought it had to be black anyway she had like bright like Nike white shoes on all white and I just I thought that was crazy because I feel like as an HM1 you should be the lead the example like of what you need to show your sailors and she wasn't that um so we I had a hard time with her but it definitely it definitely took months after she became HM1 so yeah Madison quick question um so you had issues with the HM1 um was did in your opinion do you think the chief was in cahoots with that like it wasn't done you guys can work out or did you bring it up to the chief level to try to get into that fix i did i talked to my chief and i was like hey chief this is what's going on like is there anything that you can maybe talk to her about fix it and after i talked to her i kind of loved out for a little bit but then it just started happening again. But the problem was too is that it wasn't like really anything to prove that she was like mistreating me. There wasn't like anything evidence that I could prove. So it's like is she just making this up? You know she could be lying about this. And I feel like too is for the listeners I feel like maybe they feel that way as well. Like nobody's going to believe me. Like what's the point? Because I felt like that a lot of times. Yeah. Now, did other people go through this stuff too? For you, yeah. So I actually didn't know at the time, but one of my shipmates was going through the same issue, but with our chief. And this was a male. He was a Hispanic male that was going through the same thing, but with our chief. But not with her. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. One more question Do you think That the fact that you were So much open With your back and forth with her Kind of instead of like Pulling into the office And you guys have conversations Seems like some of your arguments may have been out in public You think that played a part Yes I do Yeah instead of doing it behind a closed door Yeah I do Yeah, you have to. I used to tell people all the time, I don't care if you got an issue, but let's respectfully have an issue. Let's go somewhere and have a conversation. Because when we out in public, it's a lot happening. You caring about how people perceive you. She caring about how people perceive her. She also don't want nobody else to talk. She also don't want that to become a habit amongst everybody else. They see Madison talking a certain way, so then they go and think they can talk. So it's a lot of ego in the public conversation. So you have to, I was in one before, me and one of my friends, but I was the first, he was the second, and I consider him a friend of this day. But when we worked, we were at work when we worked together and he was, I think I talked about it on our pod, he's supposed to, he had a cellar that was coming in. And I don't know to him i think back in these days like no matter what rank you was but he was just leading to this other like it's just this extra joy so he a second i'm a first it's his seller coming out i'm like yo you supposed to give him the best 72 hour experience you you know like so we taught we in the middle of a meet and i'm like yo you're not checking them in right you know what i mean like you he like that ain't my job i can't do your job you know we we flared up me and him we going at it so we like all right look this is what we're going to do i was like this is what we're going to do we're going to talk about this after this that's what we're going to do we're going to talk about this after this and you know and this wasn't that we're going to talk about this after this like conservative joint sister yeah we gonna go we gonna go talk about this so we both go like you ever see like the video with the two dogs and they in like at the gate but the gate closed and they like barking at each other then the gate opened and like that was us like we're like yeah let's go talk about this so then we go go to talk about it and then we actually talk about it like we actually figured it out and came to a conclusion or whatever like that so yeah madison like damon said i think it always make more sense to to do that probably yeah because i mean because i knew a lot of times i made it worse for myself and i was it was always it was my fault because i would i would be the one to talk to her, talk back to her and I'm not allowed to do that. I'm not supposed to do that as a junior sailor to HM1. But I always apologized to her and tried to talk to her, but no matter how many times I did it, nothing changed. Yeah. What's up, Damien? No, no, no. Go ahead. I was just going to ask, what was it about you, Madison? Was you just always ready for the smoke? Kind of, yeah. After a certain amount of time, I was because I was this strong. I came in with boots running when I first got there. I was called all the way up to 312 is what I could be. I couldn't get my – I have a whole other thing about air pins and e-swats and everything. I have my own opinion about that. What is it? I didn't get it. But I was just this, like, I don't know. I was hardworking. I was really good at my job and I also think she didn't like that about me because I wanted to go out and do more. I was volunteer and I was trying to be part of the JAI. I was trying to do all this stuff, trying to promote HM2. And I don't think she liked that either. And I'm assuming that the command you came from, right? And it's just for the listeners and UMass, I know I'm just hearing your version of this experience, right? But I'm assuming that for command you came from, it was a lot different than a carrier. Oh, yeah, because I came straight from a clinic. So it was just all cupcake sales and bake sales and all that stuff. And I actually was never a part of that. I was like, I told my senior chief at the time, I was like, in order to promote to HM3, because HM3 was 0% when I was at the clinic. We couldn't promote to HM3. And I was like, in order, if you want me to promote, I said, I'm not doing cupcake sales or bake sales. I said, that's for the birds. I said, I'll see on a ship or somewhere. That's what I told him. Oh, man. He said, thank you for your honesty. I said, you're welcome, senior, but I just can't do it. Oh, man. Yeah. I was a good sailor, I promise. It doesn't sound like it, but I promise I'm good. Well, everybody was, though, right? But how would you grade yourself? On a scale of 1 to 10 as a sailor? A to F. Ooh. probably a C. Alright, C, right? So what would have got you to an A? More listening, more or less talking back to my chain of command and my leadership. I definitely had a lot to improve and work on. And I also think just the environment that I was in, it was always a back and forth, so I was always on my toes, so it made everything worse. So I think if I I would have just been taken out of the environment. It would have, you know, I could have improved myself on the ship as it was. Because before I got in trouble, that's when I was trying to be involved in the command. I got all my qualifications. And then after I got in trouble it just kind of went away I had no motivation to do anything But I still continued to work my job and improve my work environment before I got there. Did you feel like you let getting in trouble define you a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. I be telling people to work against that too. So I did work against it. I felt like it definitely had influence on me. But I also try not to let that get to me because I moved around in certain spaces. Because when you're in medical, you have different little sections that you work in. Yeah. So I definitely didn't move around in medical. And everywhere that I went, I made it a better place than where it was when I got it. So I left it somewhere better. So I continued to work my butt off. But the only difference is I didn't try to get involved into the command anymore. I didn't get any more qualifications. I didn't try to get into the JA, nothing like that. It takes a toll. Yeah, there was no point I seen because I was like, I know I can't promote, so why does it matter? Yeah, I got thoughts. I think Damon was going to say something. I got a thought, though. I think Damon was going to say something, though. Yeah, it's one of those things. It can take a toll, don't you? Over time, especially when you hit the dead place and you're running and you're getting all these things and you're doing great and the command and your leadership's saying, keep going, you're doing great, and then you hit that wall, that wall can define you either good or bad every time, right? It doesn't miss, right? So now you can be in a slump, right? Like, and I tell you this too, and I also think this is a leadership thing also, like when sailors get in trouble, right? That chain of command there to pick them up, like they get in trouble, okay, this happen. You're going to be held accountable. Now where are we going to go? How are we going to move forward now? Right. That type of conversation needs to happen because a lot of times, you know, especially when you up against it, it's like, man, I don't even care no more. Right. Like, especially what you said, you can't advance, you can't do this. So what am I doing right now? I'm just going to do my job and go home. Yeah. I even had a, um, had the mail. Um, what was it the mail PO where I distribute mail and get mail I couldn't even hold that and I'm like what am I gonna do steal somebody's social security out of mail I couldn't even hold that for a year because I got in trouble yeah I should have never let Damon um talk because he made my point like like the point I'm like yo Damon you gotta shut up but that was my point man like like it's a it's a it's a leadership thing you know as well you know when it comes to like not letting it define you. You need people outside of yourself to show you that it doesn't define you. Like you said, we had an issue like that before with a seller. It was a different place. It was like a Simeo thing. I talked about it on a podcast years ago, but the seller said something when he gave Simeo. The process was happening and then there was a group of people talking about stripping them of certain positions. I think he was like the JEA president. They didn't just talk about stripping them a certain positions i'm like yo but it's in the process nothing's even like done yeah yeah the simio thing is the simio thing let's let that work right and whatever that does it does it like starting to strip of my other shit don't got nothing to do with you know the simio process and what's happening over there let's stop doing things like that like we just be canceling people you know what i mean like yo you can't you can't give out mail no more man because you did this and that we can't do it because then that makes somebody feel like lower than yeah yeah I was just going to say especially when you already went through NJP and you already got whatever the reward was from NJP you got it like that's the process by which it's my opinion for like anybody listening the process by which is NJP now it It might be some other like big time thing that might be connected to whatever else you're doing. But for the most part, the process by which is NJP. If it is some other big connected to whatever you're doing, then yeah, you might not be able to do it. Like if your leadership came in a question and that's the reason why you went to NJP, maybe you shouldn't be leading. If you get fired from like your division as a chief, you probably shouldn't be the MWR chief. You know what I mean? You probably need some time out of leadership for a little bit. But some of the other stuff, we don't got to strip people of everything. That was all. Yeah. I wish my training command or my chief would have sat down with me and be like, I know you got in trouble, but it doesn't matter anymore. How can we move on? And this is what we can do. But they never did that. They kind of just like forgot about me. And it still makes me feel some type of way about it. But it made me, at the time, I didn't care on the ship because I'm like, they forgot about me. Then they're not going to care what I do as long as I work and they leave me alone. Like, that's okay. But it just kind of sucks because I think with me getting in trouble my first time and my second time, I've noticed that my chain of command in both situations, they kind of berated me for getting in trouble for the certain things I did. And then they just forgot about me. and I think more leadership needs to sit down with their sailors and be like I know you got in trouble but how can we continue on in a better way because it also made me feel some type of way after my NJP when they're like you can't promote you can't hold these collaterals you can't do none of this because you got in trouble but we don't want that to hinder you but it's gonna hinder me because how do you expect it not to when I can't hold any collateral can't have all these extra things can't be part of a certain cabinet in JA like it's not fair especially for a year a year for a lot of stuff is a long time for a sailor yeah yeah yeah we gotta be a part of the rebuilding process after you get broken down from the from the NJP process we like we gotta rebuild and let you know like especially like we like you said we do say that like yo don't let this define you you know you know you gotta get that up. Hey Madison, you know why when Delmo we talk about the rebuilding process. The reason for that is though because we need sailors as leaders. We need sailors. We have to come back in a new come from a different direction and say things that get you back on the path. right because if every sailor get in trouble and we just push him to the side man how much work we getting done you know what I'm saying yeah I get it I just wish more chiefs and more leadership did that instead of just forgetting about their sailors because often they forget about their sailors and the sailors was like well I just don't know what to do with my life anymore and a lot of them you know want to commit suicide and stuff like that because they're just forgotten about and it's just such a hard time and they feel like they have nobody else. Hey, man. Oh, go ahead. No, this is real quick. Madison, you ever heard of trigger warning? The term trigger warning? Yes, I apologize. You be hitting me hard, bro. I'm so sorry. Damn. I'm so sorry. I'm just messing with you. I'm just messing with you. What did you say, Darren? Also, I want to say this, though. Hey, for all the listeners out there, man, that you did. Madison said a couple times that she wished the chain of command did more. That was her chain of command. It's a lot of chain of command that I'm hoping that's doing great things out there that are taking care of their sailors the right way and then lifting them up and things like that. This is the chain of command that Madison had when she was in. I'm going to comment on that too, Damon. It's the world we live in. where you get different flavors of everything. I've seen leadership, even at a leadership level, that I don't think always has the best interest of their sellers. I've seen leadership at a leadership level that does as well. I just recently had somebody that I care deeply about who listens to the podcast, and I'm not going to put too much business out there, But that I know is a stellar seller, like a damn near 5-0 seller as a first class, but now a chief and has held on to a collateral for like two years and can't handle it anymore. Like can't do it anymore. I'm not going to say too much about it, but it is on a carrier, but just can't do it anymore. And it has communicated it up and up and up and up. And it seems like just keep getting the like, nah, just keep holding it. Just keep holding it. Almost at the end of the tunnel because people might not want to make other people do the shit. So and we get those from chiefs. We get those messages from chiefs a lot that's dealing with issues like some of them dealing with issues at their command. You know what? And some of these things to me, like easy fixes, you know, and then just start with just caring about people, right? We recently had a seller, like just recently, and I'll get this up just a little bit, right? One of my sellers yesterday was dealing with some issue with an ord mod and orders and just things, right? And we were able to take care of it. We were able to take care of it. And it's not an indictment against anybody. I'm not judging nobody. We were able to take care of it. We fixed it. By the time we got it taken care of, the seller was gone. So seller's gone by the time we get it taken care of. Madison, I think you know this already. I'm the CMC at the command. By the time we figure this out, seller's gone. It's about 1800. And all of this stuff is time critical stuff. Now, my day was impacted by the next alligator. Damon, I don't know, you know this, but where I work at every day, especially on Friday, it's a fire and another fire. And so as you put that out, It's another fire and another fire. So my whole day was impacted by fire after fire after fire after fire after fire. So by 1800, I'm at the gas station. I got my daughter with me, just came from daycare. And I'm like, earlier in the day, I'm like, I hope that somebody circles back to the cellar and just let them know we fixed the issue. Because he seemed very concerned about it in the morning. So I called him. I'm like, hey, he happened to be at HM as well. I'm like, hey doc, I just, CMC, I just wanted to tell you that, or my post it, I told him whatever. And I'm like, did you know already? I'm sorry to bother you if you knew. And he didn't know. So nobody told him and he was like, yo, CMC, I'm so glad you told him. And again, it's not an indictment against any because people are different. My style of leadership is different. You know what I mean? But he came and talked to me personally in the morning and I saw his face and I knew he was really concerned about his situation that he was in. So I called him and he was like, yo, my wife was just about to do something with the kids. I literally stopped something from happening because they were worried about whatever this was that was happening. He was like, yo, I appreciate it. Boom, boom, boom. So that's just me with the second order of action of like, let me make sure this seller knows what's going on because boom and um not to pat myself on the back but it's different styles like not everybody is like that yeah you know not everybody is like that you have good leaders and you have bad leaders but you know you never know yeah and i mean and some people don't know what you know some people don't really know what's good or bad right and some people are never taught yeah and we don't have, we talked about this with DGUS a while ago, it's no real measuring stick on the different styles. Some things you might do just might work for you and where you are at the moment. I might have to go somewhere else and do something different. At my last command, I would personally call the sailors and wish them luck on the exam. Before they took the exam, I would call him on the phone. I can't do that here. It's just a different style of command, so you got to do something different. And then to circle back to whatever Damon was saying is, I think it's unfortunate that it's that much of a variation. A seller could go through an entire career and be like, yo, the Navy sucked. And really it was just their small vacuum of an experience they meant I never had like me personally yeah I've when I look back now and I say I had a great experience but if I really look back and I felt would have got out after eight years the command I was at I could have had a lot to complain about I used to go home and bitch to my mom on the way home every single day you know what I mean what's some of the good moments for you Madison good moments I guess like meeting all the people that you know I would never would have met if I never joined. Squadron on the ship really, I would say, saved my life. They were my best friends. And then Charleston. Really loved Charleston. Got to live down there. Great piece of South Carolina. Loved it. Great moments. Met my ex-husband and my current husband. Have kids. Great. Great kids. Besides the craziness that you hear. I do want to touch on a funny part of me checking into my very first command. So I came from Quantico and I'm officially checking in. Packed up. I got a Tahoe. Everything's packed up. My C bag is in the bottom of my car and I got my whites on, but I don't have my neckerchief or my cover. I'm like, oh my gosh. So I'm digging through my C bag. I have like five minutes. Get out of my car. No cover, no neckerchief. Somebody had to tell me halfway through the walk, hey sailor you're missing your neckerchief and your cover and i'm like oh my gosh thank you so much go back to my car put my neckerchief i still forgot my cover i go back and get it then i i'm like okay i finally got everything walking halfway through the walk i'm so nervous i salute the chief because i thought they're officer i was like oh my goodness and he said he just looked at me like I was crazy. Walked in and I walked in and I thought I had cut my hair short enough, but I didn't, so it was a little bit out of regs. So they had to, so my new shipmates had to braid my hair for me so it was short enough so I could check in the correct way and not be all messed up. Come here, girl. Let's get you right, girl. They was looking out for you. That's good. Yeah. And then when I checked in on the ship, I had my ribbons flipped upside down. on my blues. So I was looking all kinds of fucked up when I checked it. What's your issue with East Wiles in there? Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't think an E4 with an EP and E5 and above should be the only ones to get it. That's my... That's my... What's your reasoning? What's up? Because, so, I guess, if I... So, So I was only supposed to be on the ship for three years, and there's so many of us. So it took me about a year and a half to even, maybe two years to even get an EP. So that leaves me with a year to get it. And I don't even think I'm eligible then at that point. So then I went through my entire career on the ship without even being able to get it. And there's like, you have all these other rates who have, I don't know, 20, 30 people in one division. So how are they going to be able to get it if they're on the ship for three, four years? I mean you would have stayed on a ship longer though had you not gotten out right no only three years was my contract oh yeah I got so I got thought so what about like learning your rate so it only took me a year to learn it I was already qualified up to 312 year and a half see but you have E5s that are checking in six months and they're able to get it you see what I'm saying it took you a year to learn your rate what you mean by that it took me a year to learn everything on the ship because I already know what my job is but it took me a year to learn everything when I needed to know like the master the rate is that art on the ship and medical I don't know it's just paperwork I did but basically it's just sick call and paperwork yeah I mean you could it's a carrier so I'm not sure but could you not like you have medical records you have sick call you have where you do the flight take physicals And the clinic before that, it kind of already set me up because I knew how to do records and physicals. Sick call, piece of cake. And the rest of it wasn't anything. It's just the maintenance part that I had to learn. Yeah. So when I went through to get my ESWAS, that wasn't a rule. Like I was able to get my ESWAS within the first year. I think they changed it, what, in 2021? Yeah. Some of you, you're asking me questions that I don't want to be like my man last week. I'm going to be like, Troy, you know, you ask me questions I can't necessarily answer factually, right? But so I got mine early, but I got mine early. So for the listeners that be like, well, who the fuck do you think you are? But I got mine early, but I will argue that maybe I can't because I got mine early and it didn't have a negative impact on me. But I would argue some of the thought process and concept in there is to make sure. And again, all rates ain't the same, but it would be to make sure that you. because it takes time. You got to study for it. You got to focus on it and stuff like that. Damn, I don't even take the advancement exam anymore anyway. But I think it'd be like to make sure that you are learning your rate. You're learning your rate. You're getting assimilated to the command. You are indoctrinated to your command. You're learning a job. You're getting your DC stuff you're supposed to get and all those things. And then you should be at about a year when you get all those things and should be fine. Like I said, who am I to talk? I got mine within the first year of my command. What's your take on that, Damon? I got mine early too. I was like an E2. I was like an E2 or something when I got mine. But I will say this though, it's benefits to it. And I also think Madison, just for your point you was making, if you are killing it at your job, you got all your quads and stuff up most of the time during that time period you're probably going to be an EP when it all comes up if you kicking butt like that and everything is going to plans most of the time you could possibly be an EP but it's always exceptions to everything right it's always going to be those sailors that's out there that's going to be like way advanced in this stuff and kicking ass and sitting back like man why I can't do this, right? So I know it's going to be something like that, but we had a, I think the Navy did have an issue when they changed that plan, though. Sailors at one point was coming on board the ship to get their A-swap spin, right? Yeah, time they get there, you know, they wouldn't worry about knowing their job. They wouldn't worry about being a technician at this. They wouldn't worry about getting that eye candy on their chest. You know what I mean? So I think that played a play. and extra weight on boards and shit. Oh, yeah. And I don't think that that should weigh anything for an apprentice. An apprentice, the work you do should be the weight of your grading value, right? I don't want to say your value because I don't want people to feel like your only value to the work you do. But when you're that junior, I'm looking at your output. And that might be based off of my generation, you know? But I want like, like what you got, as you get more senior, then I want to see you in leaderships where you were the president of MWR. You were this, you were that. But why are you junior, man? Like, did you fix this? Can you fix that? I mean, you were the HM. It's a little different, right? But like I was an engineer electrician. So we still did maintenance. Believe it or not, we had maintenance. The refrigerator? No, but we had to put one of those. tickets where we had to, what are they called? I forgot the name of them. I don't know. DCPO stuff. We had to hang the tickets. Tags? We had to do the tags too. We had to do that. What y'all, fan? Battle manners or something? I don't know. That's it. That's all y'all had. A question for you though, because you worked at Meps for a little bit, right? I still work at Meps actually. How's that? How's working at Meps? It's fascinating. to see how the ins and outs work before trying to get them to the military. Working with recruiters, with people who work there. We work beside military as well. It's pretty cool. I assume you see a lot of... It's funny because I got this whole recruiter expose that I'm going to do, but it ain't going to be until after I get out the Navy, man. I'm going to go underground, man, and I'm going to definitely expose the dirty side of recruiting. I was just talking to somebody yesterday and she was, oh, not yet last week. She was like, my recruiter lied. Well, told me to lie. When you have an E3 aviation, yeah, I would expect them to lie to get you in. They told me to lie about my asthma. They told me to lie about my, I'm anemic. They told me to lie about my anxiety. They told me to lie. I'm like, damn. They told you to lie about everything. Me and her, we got like a humorous kind of connection. So we come talk and we talk about things. I'm like, damn, these recruiters lying like that. But how is it working at MAPS? Do you ever see the dark side of it at all? Don't tell us if you do. What's like the dark side? What do you think it is? Corruption to get people into the Navy. I mean yeah they tell people tell us all the time they're like yeah my creator told me not to say certain things or write certain things and we're like no you gotta tell us everything cause like we need to know yeah so what it's like for you right cause you were a seller now you're watching these younger people come in and about to go into the military and all of that like what do you see in that? Does that make you feel anything watching them? What I make sure to tell them is do your research. Don't listen to nobody else. Don't listen to people sitting beside you. Do your own research. Make sure it's the job that you truly want to do. And read your paperwork that you're signing before you do anything. My recruiter never really lied to me, I guess. but I know other people had their experiences so I make sure to tell them what they need to know because nobody's not telling that yeah alright well so you're familiar with our do better segment right Madison? so I got to do better this week so we started Hero of the Month back up we haven't done them this year just because guests and all that we started the movies back and I did watch The Rip so I do plan to review The Rip right like and that's the best name that it could be. But I do plan to review the rip. But my do better, but I don't know if Damon got one, but my do better is we gotta make sure that we hold in the standard when it come to safety on these installations, man. So real quick, I go through the gate and I give my ID to the person that's manning the gate. and the person scans the ID. Don't look at the scanner. Don't look at me and don't look at the ID. Just scans the ID and says, have a good day. You don't know who the hell just came on your base. So then I go talk to my skipper about it and I'm like, yo, I just went through the gate, man. And this dude scanned my ID and I ain't look at nothing. He was like, you must got the same dude that I had yesterday. And maybe it's just that dude. I know Gary Owen, the comedian, said he was stationed where I'm stationed at before. He was an MA, and he didn't look at people. He just let anybody do too, right? So, hey, we got to do better with that, yo. If you're standing on a gate, I know it's a rush hour. There's people coming in, but you have to keep that base secure, yo. It's a military base. We got, man, we got sellers going missing. And some of this don't have nothing to do with some of that, but we got sellers going missing. We got sellers being found dead. We got all these things happening, man. Make sure that we're keeping military service members secure on our installations, please. So I do better. Yeah, man, I do better is for sailors, man. I need all the sailors, man, that care about their careers, man, as much as I care about their careers. You know what I mean? show me the same energy I'm showing you I'm going to do my due diligence I'm going to help you out as much as possible but I want you to do the same for yourself also that's all, it's my do better man be your thing man you got one Madison? I would say my do better is to continue to be try to be a better co-worker MFs and try to get rid of the Navy ideology that I have engraved in my brain. Hold up Madison. Hold up Madison. You said you trying right now to be a better coworker. Right now you having some you going hard in MFs right now. What's happening? Nothing's happening. Sometimes it's hard to get rid of what's engraved in your brain through the Navy and get get better and revert to the civilian side. I'm like, Navy, Navy, Navy, because we're in a military facility. But I working with all civilians and a few HMs still And I have to remember that I no longer a sailor So I trying to be the civilian worker now Hey Madison, I know you out now. Do you think there's anything from a Navy standpoint that we can do better? A lot. Off the top of my head. I think sometimes leadership needs to be less judgmental against sailors in certain, when, if they do something wrong, they just need to be like, how can I help you? Or like, what can we do? You know, basically going back to like what happened with me and my instances, there's been so many people that has been judgmental within leadership. And I think there needs to be less of that. so you don't have a problem with accountability you just have a problem with like the after you know okay it's over let's move on okay I got what you're saying alright so here you graded yourself as a seller right since we both belong in the Chiefs Mess right can you give the Chiefs Mess a grade based off of this is based off of your experience and I guess like your peers and your friends, how would you grade the Chiefs mess? Oh, man. Chiefs mess, I think it just depends on the situation. Chiefs mess, I would say, I don't know, like a B plus maybe, B. So in your experience, your Chiefs mess was a B plus? Like from throughout the duration of your career, from your experience, the Chiefs mess was a B plus? I think a lot of Chiefs were good Chiefs. I never had any issues with them, but you know how Juniors say it was our old cheese mess. They don't care about nobody but themselves. They're like a cult within the cells type of thing. I've heard that before. But I never really had a problem with them. I would say one thing that I don't know if I truly agree on it is when we do DRBs, why does there have to be 50 Chiefs and half of them are the Chiefs? I don't know. I don't get it for that. That's just from my point of view. Because that's also why I didn't feel like speaking out because why do I need to tell my story to people that don't even know me? Yeah, what you thought was going to happen if you spoke out. Yeah. That is really judgmental, you know? They're really ready to tear you up. Yeah. I want no part of it. I'm going to move out of here as quickly as possible. I'm not trying to get... I spent two minutes from there and was out. Yeah, I just did DRB for the... And that's really the only place... Like a CO might, you know, come off the top rope for like two minutes or something when they talking to you, XO2. But the DRB, man, like it could be just bullet after bullet after bullet after bullet. And your whole life is now flashing in front of your face and the decisions that you made and, you know, all that stuff, man. um but sometimes like sometimes you know depending on what it is um and i'm not saying that like it's a rarity it's a lot of times where even in that room those people really do care about the sellers right and it's me saying it from being in that room right so i know some junior says like that's fucking law right but me saying it from my perspective is even in that room um is people that care and they're going to, no matter what, a lot of young sellers, they do a lot to get away from why they're in there, right? I was going through this, I was going through that, I haven't talked to my dad in like eight months, whatever. And it's like, yeah, you're in here because you fucking bust the windows out of the Walmart. We got to hold you accountable for that, right? But a lot of times, even when that seller leave the room, it's like, hey, let's make sure that this person get the help they need in this regard. And we do this and we do that, we do that, we do that. And then hopefully you do have somebody follow up with you to make sure you're good to go. Because people really do care that sellers have. From my perspective, we want to build the Navy into a better place than it was when we got here. We want to build up our sellers and be better. We know people are going to fuck up. We know people are going to do the wrong thing. And we also know DRB is a part of that process, right? So we got to do it. We got to be there. And hopefully we can make you better through it. And that's my, again, like I said, that's me and my perspective. I want to get back to a couple of things. I want to get back to a couple of things with you, but I want to veer off for like a couple seconds. Damon, are you familiar with, and Madison are y'all familiar what was happening with this whole tenderness situation and destination barbecue no I have seen a couple things but I'm not like tenderness like where like falls off the bone type of thing yeah yeah yeah but it's a whole nother thing because Keith Lee went there and but if y'all not tracking I'm a lead at for the listeners if you heard that and was hoping you heard something hopefully we do talk about it soon but I'm probably not on the same page as some of y'all. I just think, yeah, I'm not even talking about it. The Rip. Did you see the movie The Rip, Damon? Yes. Did you see The Rip, Madison? Do you watch movies? I do watch movies, but I have not seen that one. What's the last movie you watched? The Neutron movie. What you thought about? I fell asleep on that like eight minutes. I bought it for $25. I fell asleep on it like 20 minutes and did not wake up and watch it again. I did not say, hey, I'm going to get my money's worth out of this. Yeah, I think it's a little slow at the beginning, but I think it's good. Yeah, so the rip was Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Tiana was in it, and Steven Yeun. Oh, I did watch that one. I didn't know that's the name of it, but I did watch it. Yeah, I did not like it. I expected way more. I thought I was going to get like a fucking the town level type of movie with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and then Tiana coming off of her Golden Globe and Steven always does good. I ain't like it. I thought the movie was decent in the beginning. Then I thought they just tried to twist their way out of the movie at the end. There's one scene in an armored truck and y'all throw 18 twists in that one scene. Yo, that was you. It was you. Who was the guy? It was you. I knew it all along. I caught him four hours ago and told him this was a setup. I just thought that shit was weak. I like the movie, man. I like the plot though, man. I think it was a good plot. I did like the twist was kind of crazy to me. I tell you what, I like the movies that hit me with that unexpected shit. I wasn't expecting what came out with Transpire, but I thought it was a good movie. I ain't saying it was great or it wasn't like Sinner or nothing like that. No movie like that, man. But it was a good movie, man. You ain't get like twist overload? Yeah. I thought it was you. No, but I told you it wasn't me. Yeah, no. We was acting like we was fighting. I picked your pocket. Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The truck scene was crazy. The back of the truck was crazy. It was. I feel like 35 twists in one little scene. Yeah, it was a lot going on right there. No bullshit. It was a lot going on in that scene. Did you like the movie, my son? I think it was okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was okay. It wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it was okay. Tiana said something early in the movie. She said something early in the movie that I heard. I forgot what she said, but I heard it in the neighborhood. Just the regular streets, bro. Whatever she said, I'm like, yo, this don't feel like nothing. Yeah. But her part was kind of like that, though, man. Her whole... There's a street when she was talking. What have we done? Let's go, Damon. Let's go real quick. You saw Sinners? I did. Come on, Damon. Let's go. I throw a little comment in there because last part we did together, not the last one, the one before that, we was talking about The listeners don't know the comment. Okay, the comment is the Sinner got a record for nominations for the Oscars and I put in there a pretty good you know for a vampire movie Dumbo right because Dumbo uh movie uh Dumbo what's the name of it again well I forget with um DiCaprio One Battle After Another Right so it it did good and Dumbo was was talking about it he was like wings he kind of said something to the lines of I won't put words in your mouth something to the line of like you know a vampire movie is not gonna win this or win something like that Dumbo said and then that's why I throw that comment in there they got 16, a record breaking 16 nominations I was like pretty good for a vampire movie right so that's where that comment come from now with all that said I think that I smoked so with all that being said I think this movie with those nominations and the hype that's coming behind it when people talking about it I think they finna do very well I think they finna win some of these nominations for Sinner. And I told you before, Dumbo, I wasn't the biggest fan of the movie. Right? One battle after another. I thought it was... I needed more from that movie. It won all the biggest awards. Yeah, it won. Yeah, it did. I know, Dumbo. I didn't have no real smoke smoke for you, Dumbo. I took that smoke. But this is what I'm going to do. I only have, I'm going to respond with one thing of smoke because you deserve it, right? You deserve one thing of smoke. So I got to respond with it. My one thing of smoke, my one smoke response, right? Yeah. Is where was the energy when I was saying that last week? Why'd you wait till the nominations came out to try to say something slick? That's my one smoke, right? But like, so now here's my smoke. And I'm glad you get to sit with us through this. Madison is not like a Madison thing, but it's a PTSF thing. So this is my rebuttal to that conversation. And some of it is also like to like social media because I'll be on it and stuff like that. So this is my first one. Now I think I would take little jabs at you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I want to make something clear, real clear, because we live in a time where if you got a criticism about something, people call it hate. Right. Like you can't have one issue with something nowadays without people saying you don't like it. And that's not the case for me when it comes to centers. My next point is, remember when Golden State had the Splash Brothers era? Yeah. Do you remember this person when like Steph Curry and the whole Splash Brothers and Clay and they was like, Golden State was like the team to beat. When this happened, it was a bunch of new fans that came out of nowhere and you had to like debate basketball with people who really didn't know nothing about basketball. It was like YM1 now. She is dressed in all this Steph Curry shit and watching the championship game and don't know nothing about it, right? And that just happened to be Golden State fan. Now they sleep somewhere, right? Just like the Patriots fans just woke up out of nowhere. They was in hibernation. I know where Dubbo's going with this. I know where you're going with this. Go ahead, Dubbo. Go ahead. Or like, you know, Eminem, right? Eminem is another example. I love hip hop and I love Eminem. If I was to go off of like my favorite artist from all times, Eminem would be the favorite amongst all my favorites, right? But that's how I feel right now in this era talking about movies with people on the internet. that never talked about movies before. Right now you got Sinners brought in a new audience of people to talk about movies. I'm not debating football with Damon. That's not my playing field. You know what I mean? So my disdain about Sinners against one battle after another was never to the movie. It was more to the newfound award season experts. Like now everybody know about the Oscars and the Golden Globes and all this stuff to where they watch a movie like Marty Supreme and be like, yo, that movie was born. Like, what? You know, my next piece is this. And it's going to be a little long winded, Madison. But my next piece is this. Ryan Coogler. I love Ryan Coogler. From Fruitvale Station until now. Now, Ryan Coogler is one of the directors that if he makes a movie, I'm near the first day, right? Ryan Coogler also seems like a company man. Ryan Coogler also comes across as a person that does the work. He puts in what he needs to put in to be in the rooms that he needs to be in and be appreciated in the ways that he is, right? Not everybody does that, right? So Ryan Coogler does that. I watched all his technical content about this film, like all his artist-to-artist interviews. And I think Ryan Coogler is one of the most important directors of our time, right? And I also think he gets what he wants from movie studios right now. And here's why I think Ryan Coogler is one of the most important directors of our time, right? And this is a little bit of a black thing, right? Ryan Cooler could get black people out to watch movies about not eating together at a fucking dinner table. That's not like a rom-com or something like that. He got us out watching a genre movie, a vampire movie. He had us out watching a superhero in the movies. We don't have those movies. I don't know if you noticed that, Madison, but it's not a lot of black superhero movies. are not a lot of black vampire movies. They just don't exist, right? But Ryan Coogler could do that at the top, at the height of his abilities, at the height of having a technical team to be able to do this and actually have an expand audience, right? He got all races. It's not just black people going to see the Ryan Coogan movie. It's all races. You got white people, black, whoever, right? But he's able to do this, but get us out. If Ryan Coogan don't make a fucking movie, It's no other big box office movie last year that gets like that's primarily made by African-Americans to get African-Americans to go. It's not one. Like Sinners is the only one. You know what I mean? It was it was years where like a Friday would come out the same year as another one or like Eddie Murphy and Martin would have a movie and Will Smith. Sinners is the only one. So so so I love that about Ryan Cooke. It's also not it's not menace to society. It's not belly. It's not that. It's a fucking genre movie. So I love Ryan Coogler, and I love that he's able to do that, right? Sinners is good. It's a really good movie. It's great. When the teaser first came out before they told us it was a vampire movie, I wanted to see it. When it said the name Ryan Coogler, I was like, yeah, I'm going to go see this, right? I never said it wouldn't be nominated, right, Damon? That's another little kickback. I never said it wouldn't be nominated for anything. Did I think that it would break the nomination record? I didn't necessarily think it would break the nomination record. But also, when you think about it, it's no way that it can't. Because it's a movie that people acted well in. It's a movie that was directed well in. And then, oh, by the way, it's a movie that's based off of music. so now you and you have craft awards that you could easily put that in um it's a period piece it's about back in the day so you got costume awards and you got makeup awards but oh it's a horror movie so you still got makeup awards so all of those craft awards that you would expect a genre movie to be nominated for it was nominated for the craft awards but again like i said soundtrack and sound um but the ones that i honestly didn't expect would be like the best picture, right? Best picture. I could see him getting best director, but I didn't see Sinners being nominated for best picture. And if it won, that's crazy, right? But like I said, that movie covers a bunch of ground. Do I see the Oscars kind of pandering a little bit? I got my own issue with when movies, culturally relevant movies to African Americans come out, what that are like decent and what and how they get clamored by like pop culture um i have my own opinion about that that i'm not going to share but i saw this happen with get out and i never thought get out was even that good but i'm gonna leave that alone um my other one is um so so there's some of the rebuttal now damon um it's uh how often do you follow the academy awards If so, this is rare. So like you said, Damon, when you said not bad for a vampire movie, you're right, right? Sinners is the third vampire movie that ever be nominated, ever, right? So when I'm talking about the Academy Awards, I'm talking from the experience of, again, like I said, somebody who's familiar with the Academy Awards. It's been 30 years since the vampire movie was nominated for an award, right? 30 years. So, yes, I'm surprised the vampire movie was nominated so heavily, but not surprised that a Coogler movie was. And then on top of this, right, because we talk in genre, another point was the lady from Weapons. You saw Weapons, Damon? Uh-uh. You ain't seen Weapons? Mm-mm. It's good. Did you see Weapons, Madison? I don't even know what that is. Yeah, I see it on here. I see it on here as one of the, you know, they got some. Yo, watch Weapons. Yeah, I'm going to watch it. It's about a witch. Well, in the previews, like, you kind of gave it up a little bit. In the previews, like, a bunch of kids disappear from, like, from their homes at, like, one in the morning. Like, they all just run out of their house. And they trying to figure out what the hell happened, right? That's how the previews work. Weapons is amazing. But watching the lady from Weapons, but it's a horror movie. So watching the lady from Weapons be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, which I think she did a better job than Tiana did on One Battle After Another. I feel like if Tiana wins the Oscar That's robbing somebody That should win over her I think you stop it at the Golden Globes You got it Tiana But if she wins this Oscar That's crazy to me I do got one question Actor in a leading role Right Why do I think Sean Penn stole some of that From Leonardo What do you think about that It's the bill. Leo is the lead actor. Sean Penn was a supporting actor. Now both of them, Sean Penn and Benicio got nominated for that film. One bad after another got 13 nominations. It wasn't Trump. It wasn't no vampires. But my last question is this. My last kind of thought is this. Does this mark a new beginning for the Oscars with the lady from Weapons also being nominated for a genre film, which was horror? Is Coogler and his team, in exception to the rule, or is Sinners just that good? That's kind of like my conclusion to all of those things. And we'll see. We'll see what happens at the Oscars. I'm confident that Sinners will take home Eight At least half of them It's other movies that you Kind of like F1 should win the editing award maybe You know or one of the sound awards And F1 was a good movie too And it's also nominated for movie of the year Our best picture I haven't seen Hamnet yet I haven't seen Marty Supreme yet I haven't seen Sentimental Value yet They got two actors nominated for Best Actress. But again, you hear how I'm talking about this, Damon? Like, this is my Super Bowl, bro. This is my Super Bowl. You know what I mean? So me not expecting Sinners to win big is based off of just evidence throughout the years. So we'll see what happens, yo. Yeah. Hey, Madison. You know, dumb old nerd out on this right there. You know, you mean me? Don't win it, man. That's just so bad. I like it. I was ready for it. Lastly, just to keep that up, congratulations to Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan and that team for putting together that fucking incredible movie. I do hope they went big. That movie was great. I might watch that shit tonight. What do you do for fun, Madison? What I do for fun? Yeah. I don't really have any hobbies or extra creeper stuff. I just go to work, come home, spend time with my family. That's it. Yeah. That's really it. Yeah. And your first kid was in the Navy, right? You were still in the Navy, and this fraternizing, right? No, no, no. Not my son. My son was when I was in Charleston. You said, oh, and that's when you were pregnant. That's when you were pregnant, eight months. And then I had my daughter While I was on terminal leave Okay Yeah that's when the fraternization You know Okay So what's your Because we'll close in a minute So you've been listening to us for a little bit Right And what's your Feedback to us What should we be thinking about I think you guys do I mean, I think you guys do a good job of like talking about like bringing all these people in to talk about all different things because I can at least once or twice on each episode you guys do. I'm like, I can understand that. Like I've definitely seen that or heard of that, whatever situation you guys talk about. So I think you guys are doing a good job as it is. All the topics, like everything you guys do. I think it's great. Like everything you guys touch on. yeah can you can you like drop a message for the younger sellers to let them know like it's a safe it's a safe uh space yeah like for your podcast yeah please let them know please yeah i promise you guys that this is not a judgmental podcast at all um it's it's a great podcast to talk on uh it's it's good to bring your experiences out and to talk about them to other listeners so that maybe more people can get on here and be like, well, I dealt with the same thing and this is what happened to me, but it's also different. I would like you guys to learn from my experience as well. It's not DRB. It's not DRB. I hope some people may have take away from anything I said, even though it wasn't really about anybody else besides me, but I hope they can resonate with some things that I had said. If you had to cross the line like have a message for people to take away from you, what would it be? Always take care of yourself. Try to take care of yourself, even though the Navy's always like ship, shipmate self. Try to take care of yourself because yourself is, you know, what matters the most to yourself and your family. And always do what's better for you, not what someone else says. Unless you're going against the UCMJ, right? Yeah, unless I am. So if you could go back, right? This is my last question for you. If you could go back and talk to your old self back in your MEPs days, right? And give yourself some advice to get through your Navy journey, what would you tell yourself? Take it easy on yourself. To not beat yourself up as much. it's going to be hard and to continue to push through every adversity that you face so that would be my message well you know I'm going to go ahead and you know say Madison I want to thank you for coming on the pod right I also wanted to say I like how open you are I love those conversations. So for anybody, Junior Sailors or whoever come on the pod, I just love the fact that when you speak, you're speaking about your experiences and what you went through and the things you've done. And it's one of those things where you can't be, you're not being judged for it. It's not about being judged for it. It's about in that moment. Sometimes people don't be understanding It's that moment, right? We're always going to be able to go back and say, hey, I should have did something a little bit different, right? But you know what? Would I? Would I have done it differently? I don't know, right? But that's what makes us better, though, right? That's what we learn from. So I know you learned a lot from those situations and from that time. So keep that going. And again, thank you for coming on the pod. Hit us up anytime. You have any kind of city. Even if you know any sailors still in, junior sailors, hit them up. Tell them, hey, you know, I'm to the pod, man. Okay, I will. Thank you guys for having me. It was a good time. Yeah, this is the most fun I had in a while, man, this year. Well, this year, this is the most fun I had in an episode this year, man. And we've been having some fun, but this is the most fun, you know? So for the listener that, you know, you might have did an episode with us this year, you were fun too. Just not as fun as this episode, you know? I appreciate it. We came in kind of cold start, not knowing what we were going to do. And we had a really good conversation. So thanks, Madison. I appreciate you. And good luck at MAPS and your future with your family and your kids and everything like that. And I think most importantly, man, thanks for the years that you did spend in the Navy. Like, not everybody does that. So I appreciate that. Most definitely. All right, man. The Navy wasn't a good time, so. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. All right. Mississippi stand dude alright thank you