Episode 179 | "Cleared"

The following views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent the views of DOD Arts components. Pay attention, because you are now listening to Permission to Speak Freely. No, man, I was like, I had that little purple joint going on in the back of the line, but you got to see it, man. You know what I'm saying? Little purple background, bro. You got like three shadows, too, man. I know I see that. I got to figure out how to get rid of that. I work on that. I can't hear it. I work on that. I work on that. Thanks, though. Thanks, though. Three Shadows is wild. They doing different things and shit, man. It's Valentine's Day today. Yay. Happy Valentine's Day, man. Everybody. Yeah, I don't know if we should be whispering that. And it's today recording, so this episode is going to drop after. But I don't know if we should be whispering that. because we definitely probably shouldn't be pod yeah man we definitely shouldn't be pod enough hey I'm happy Damon we are caught up we are like not caught up but we're current again so for the listeners we skipped recording last week right so we're current again we are back a couple days before the episode which feels good man yeah I'm glad we caught up with you though too bro like you get you get in there working and trying to keep it all tied up and keep it going so i'm pretty excited about being caught up too bad we ain't put no clips out from last episode not one you know what i mean not one i was i was gonna put the one clip out about we're talking about fat chief or whatever i was gonna put that out i didn't even put that out like i i i made a clip the joint where we was like what's your perfect division yeah it was 17 minutes long i was like It was just love week, man. It's Valentine's Day. It was a week of love, man. Yeah. Really? Yeah. It's looking nice. Hey, man. Some of you got to do it. What's up? Hey, David, man, what you got planned, man? You got, like, you got a lot? Well, I know what I got planned from where I'm, like, where I'm going and where I'm eating and stuff like that, man. I still got a couple more things to line up for me. But, bro, I think it's going to be a good weekend, man. Like, everybody probably by now know me and Dumbledore have been doing this for a while. It's a special week. You know what I mean? Me and my wife, we got, like, three days straight, bro, of, like, Valentine's Day, her birthday, tomorrow, and then the anniversary after that. And I have to put my best foot forward every time, man. You know what I mean? I try my best, man. But I tell you this, though, for these three days, though, I'm starting to feel like I got to do better. That Valentine's Day is probably taking the back seat a little bit more than it used to. Like, you know what I mean? So, yeah, Valentine's Day is birthday tomorrow. I got to go hard for that. You know what I mean? You know I got to go hard for the anniversary. So, I feel like, I don't know, you know, Valentine's Day is Valentine's Day, though. But, yeah, it should. Right? Some candy. and a date and a card, man. That's all you need to really be doing. You know, I'm going to take Angelina Skims today and just have her buy shit like a little shopping spree type joint. The thing is, I had, and we did some stuff yesterday too, and then I got Amari, you know, so today was the first year that I got her a Valentine's Day card and Valentine's Day gift and bag and, you know, stuff like that. You know, just trying to bring her into the fold, man We can leave that topic, right? We can leave the Valentine's Day topic, right? We ain't got to stay there, right? Nah, man I don't think you need to, man I think, uh For me, this is pretty easy this year, man You know Get some things, receive some things I got my daughter's weekend You know Send some text messages Receive a couple text messages Or a text message Yeah A Valentine's sex message? Hey, how you doing, Aaron? I'm cool, man. People chatting. Okay. Yeah, Valentine's is different this year, man. That's all. How you holding up? I'm holding up better than most. Okay? Yeah. Hey, well, we came into this week, and this is not a demo topic. Not at all. Not the first part. And even with the shit happening It ain't a normal topic But the Super Bowl happened And confession If the Eagles ain't in the Super Bowl I don't care too much about it But I did watch it But if it ain't about the Eagles I really don't care about football I stood I stood ten toes down When it came to the NFL And I never So like I'm going to shut up in a second But I used to watch football religiously And then I stopped. I'm not even going to get into that right now. Shout out to all of our listeners. But I stopped watching NFL because I stopped agreeing with some of what they were doing. And I never went back. But I did watch the first half of that boring ass Super Bowl. But I'm going to shut up. What was the Super Bowl? When we get to Benito Bowl, though, I want to talk a little bit. What was up with that Super Bowl, y'all? Yeah, the Super Bowl didn't live up to You know The hype, but I kind of knew that though Like I knew that coming in You know, Seattle had the most dominant team And it showed I mean, it showed in the game I think Patriots stood in there as long as they could Their defense held up as long as they could But I think the better team At the end Showed it was a better team Right But yeah, I wasn't impressed with the Super Bowl leader man, like even with the team. But I will say this, and this is the last thing I'm going to say about the Super Bowl. The people who should be mad or the team who should be mad about the Super Bowl is the freaking Buffalo Beals, man. I want to say that, man. Like the Buffalo Beals, it was their year, man. You didn't have Lamar wasn't in the way. Patrick Mahone wasn't in the way. This year was Allen's year to get to the Super Bowl with all those people out of the way, right? And they flopped, bro. The Buffalo Beals flopped In the AFC, they let the Patriots in there, and the Patriots flopped into the ball. You know what I mean? So, I have no sympathy for Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. I mean, they changed overtime rules, what, three years ago to help him out? Like, I don't hear that, man. The biggest thing for me with Super Bowl is those commercials sucked. There's not one commercial that I remember, man. Ass. No. I felt I dozed off watching the game I was a horrible host I was getting clowned on for that but yeah it was memorable that one commercial was memorable I hear a lot of people talk about those commercials those commercials well a lot of TV is kind of dead we could still get a Netflix live boxing event or a football event live but like like remember we used to watch the Super Bowl so we could watch the commercials that's going to launch or we used to want to watch the movie trailers but YouTube in my opinion YouTube changed all that shit like nowadays you might get a teaser saying to go to YouTube you know what I mean to watch the full Mario trailer go to YouTube you know so and like a couple years ago the Super Bowl commercials were airing on YouTube before the Super Bowl. They'd be like, hey, there's a Super Bowl commercial coming on. So I think YouTube kind of killed, you know, all that we put behind that type of advertising, to be honest. It did, the availability of it, because it's like back in the day for YouTube, if you missed that commercial, you kind of, at the mercy of the next time, it gets ran on regular television throughout the week. I would think even though YouTube changed the landscape You still have that captive audience Watching the game live You're not pausing I think you would still be able to capitalize On active eyes I don't think they care Nobody cares we'll just Throw it on YouTube later I think they don't care I don't think they quantifying And it's going to lead us right into the halftime show But I just don't think they Quantifying viewership from the live like the stats from the live viewership i.e. right Bad Bunny's halftime show um so live right I think 135 million people you know they got watched it yeah I mean and that's it was the same thing last year and I probably yeah yeah yeah but uh when you go when you look at the like when you go back to like Michael Jackson's for instance it was a show for the people in the stadium right it was a show for the people in the yeah in the stadium right it was a concert like that nowadays when I'm looking at Kendrick's and I'm looking at Bad Bunny's this is a production for the viewer from their house or on their phone because if I was in a stadium I mean like where the hell is Bad Bunny at you know what I mean Pedro Pascal Yeah but I mean even with that though It looked really good on screen Like I don't know if any of y'all Watched the Oscars but like Lady Gaga She had a performance and it was like this This tech Like this camera that was following her All over the place it was like The way how it was done was crazy But that's how I felt about the bad money shit Like it was close up angle Shots the camera Like this can't be that entertaining From inside of the Super Bowl stadium But it's definitely great It's going to be great on the watch back The playback It was great for the TV viewership And I think that's where the focus is now And I don't know how y'all felt about that But that's what I thought Well that point you just made I think I agree with you But they also What I was looking at too And I'm sure it was not 100% Because I wasn't there But they have a big ass screen The screen that you can see Now they are, now that's probably where they're watching it from. Right, because you're right. When you're way up there and you're looking down, you ain't even feeling none of that shit that's going on down there. So I'm assuming that they was looking at. But even then, though, if I'm going to see an artist live, I want to see the artist. Even if, you know, I do see them from the screen. But again, that's not a negative critique. I went to school for this shit. I like the cinematography. I like all that. That ain't a negative critique. And then overall, I loved the halftime show. I loved everything there. Like the songs that were performed, the energy. Of course, he had some cameos and all of that. Even Lady Gaga jumped off. I love Lady Gaga. I never got anything bad to say about her. I don't understand the language, but the show was great. Bad Money put on, it was a vibe. People really got married up there. People really got engaged up there. The story was great. The symbolism was great The cultural kind of stuff was great That whole show to me was great And I could see why Bad Bunny is where he is right now Yeah, 100% I loved it all, everything you said, Dumbo Now, I do have, like, I didn't understand a lot But great beats, great everything else What he was saying for, what he was doing, the message All that stuff was great now for me you know I put on the freaking you know what they call it the thing where it says what it says I was good to go I know everybody jumping up I was reading fast bro that energy the beats the song how everything was going you couldn't help but as a music fan outside looking in, you couldn't help but love what was going on, man. Right? So, I was a big fan of it too, though. And the cats, like you said, just put subtitles on. The cats talking about why wasn't it English and all this? The same people who watch anime with subtitles or they watch Netflix with subtitles on all day. I saw one retort what he said. Cats go to the opera. I don't know what the hell he's saying. What's it doing? I didn't turn on the Turning Point USA that time show. I did see some clips afterwards. They said Kid Rock is with me. I'm back. They said Kid Rock is lip syncing wasn't up the far. His own jorts is falling down, man. They said for Olderhead he was jumping around pretty well. Angie was good. But yeah. I'm not watching the jorts. No. no i'm not watching no turning point show bro i'm not watching kid rock in 2026 man for the kid rock fans that's listening i'm not watching kid rock in 2026 man he ain't that but my favorite song from him is that we were like singing sweet home alabama all summer love that's my shit we were driving different things and we were but outside of that like i'm not rocking with kid rock man he don't get no player to ride uh kid rock Kid Rock is wild, bro. And that's just, I didn't even talk about his political stance. Kid Rock, man, he ain't any one of them. I think at some point, I'm not a fan of those artists that, like, culturally appropriate and then, like, stop. And then they go to the other, like, this is a little more. One of them, they say, oh, I've grown this. Screw you, man. That's why I look at Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, slow down Pulse Malone did that You outgrown it? Come on, man Got it Justin Timberlake and Miley Gotta slow down, man Miley Cyrus is Miley Cyrus is a legend Justin Timberlake is For what? Man, we can't start We can't start the episode with a Miley Cyrus Debate, man, we just can't, yo It's just not gonna work I see people turning off YouTube right now We can't Hey J. Cole Let's go J. Cole We can talk about Miley one of these days on a music show I love Miley We good J. Cole So J. Cole dropped his long awaited album The Fall Off I want to talk about the album a little bit I want to talk about his rollout A little bit and I want to talk first week numbers We can start at first week numbers He did 291 first week, which is massive. Yeah, it's still big three numbers. It's still in the family of your Kendricks, right? Kendrick did 321 or something like that. So it's still in the family of your Kendricks. It's still in the family of the Drake's over 250,000. I think Drake's be a little higher, like 400,000, 500,000. But it's still, he's still in that. and when they were projecting like 197 and I was looking at Cole's rollout I'm like this don't look like 197 you know what I mean and that's a throwback if anybody remember that's a throwback to Cole's first album that was projected to do like less than 100,000 and Cole was like it don't feel like less than 100,000 so that's a little throwback to the sideline story because that Cole never did under 250 his whole career that's just for an album, right? It's just a J. Cole thing. Did y'all get a chance to hear the album? Well, I know Aaron didn't, right? I just didn't care. Wow! Because I like Cole, but I've not dove into his catalog like that. And then what turned me off was this album's dropping out. Everyone just wants to critique and be like, oh, it's garbage. I'm like, it ain't been out for 48 hours yet. So I was like, I won't let everything die down and then I'll dive into it. So that's kind of why I'm staying away from listening to it right now. Yeah. Let me tell you, I haven't listened to the entire album, but I mean, I think when I knew we were going to talk about it, so I was running and I do my thing and I cut it on, whatever, right? And my biggest thing is, man, is that when I open it up and look at it, that motherfucker, you got like 100 songs on it bro like god damn that's a lot of songs bro but let me tell you now let me give you my quick critique demo quickly quickly i love j cole's storytelling bro like he has to be one of the best when they're talking about like not just going and talking about money talking about women talking about all this stuff, bro. This dude is a storytelling. I'm telling you right now. Am I listening to a song that probably is first, the first time I'm sad? Bro, his storytelling is not the truth. And then on top of that, the beats, bro, some of those beats was hardcore, bro. And I'm a beat guy. Like, I'm not this guy that comes in. And I'm from, maybe because of Mississippi, bro, you know, beats me more than the rapper to me, bro. You know what I'm saying? I got a cold beat in there, man. I'm like, let's go, let's go, right? so bro his beat was on fire his storytelling was on fire man and so far I'm excited when I get back on the trip because it's things back on man so that's my thing Did you take any risk or was it like formulaic J. Cole from past albums or he just like used to suck to the formula I think he kind of stuck to what J. Cole does right and once I hear the critique catch like yo like this your grand opus grand finale for double album maybe take some wrist hand but I was like listen to the album bro you gotta listen to the album bro you know what I'm saying you got to man just respectfully I'm not resisting I just turned off you're going on what other people say I gotta sweat I gotta sweat this is what I say when I first heard the album I was unexcited but what happened was 12 o'clock midnight drop I woke up at like 2 o'clock and I put it on and played it from my phone and did all my morning routine shit like brush my teeth wash up, do all the morning routine shit and just totally like unexcited like yo what the hell is this cold album, everything was kind of running together and somebody, one of my sellers got arrested so somebody texted me telling me about it like yeah I'm trying to have one of those too Yeah, so, you know, everything was just running together and all that. And I hated it. It wasn't no standout moments to me. Like, nothing was sticky. Like, I just did not love it. And I told myself I would have to listen to it again, right, in the car, in the gym, other places. And as I've listened to it, so anybody who talked to me, like, the first day heard my disappointment, my frustration. And Cole said something. He was like, the fall off is like Cole dropping reasonable doubt last. Right? He said that on one of his tracks and like, it's not bro. Like don't compare your album to reasonable doubt, bro. Like don't ever do that. You know what I mean? So it was like all that stuff, like the anticipation, all that. And then I listened and listened and listened and listened. Right. So I probably ran through the album now like four times. It's a really good album, really good album. I was telling a friend of mine, it's an album that I would have made. It's the kind that is like structurally and stylistically and the things to not care about. It's the album that I would have made. One of the risks that I would say Cole took was on the first, the first album is a single story. The whole album is just a story. The whole entire album is a story. Other risk that I think Cole did was there's no singles on the album. Like there's no like this is the single, right? It's nothing like that. he made an album that he intended to make and it's for his city. It's for Fayetteville. That whole album is for Fayetteville. It probably says Fayetteville in 13 of those 24 songs. The whole album is about Fayetteville. And I think he made the album he wanted to make. I would give it right now and I'm sitting on a four out of five, but I think it's going to get better. and somebody wanted us to, one of our listeners actually was like, yo, y'all gonna review that Co album? And I was happy because it's like not a Navy topic. So I'm like, yo, our listeners looking forward to us not doing Navy topics, you know, and I'm like, that made me happy because our Naval careers are gonna be over one day and we gonna be crazy, still talk about Navy shit forever, you know what I mean? So, yeah, right now and I give Co album four out of five, but it's growing like every day. Like it's like, it gets better every listen and i understand that he made an album he intended to make and just him having pd pablo on that joint you know what i mean like just him having pd pablo on the album to me was dope you know he got pd pablo on there erica badu burn a boy tim's so yeah so good album um it's still some cold things that bother me like he could have saved the what if song he got a song called what if and it's about if uh tupac and biggie apologized to each other and that's like his direct i think that's like in my opinion that's his direct connection to his apology and the beef um i think he could have saved that song and i think it would be looked at a little different creatively if he didn't apologize if that makes any kind of sense um he got another song that's pretty much a sequel to commons i used to love her uh he did it i think he did a great job on that song um it's just that i'm tired of the i used to love her theme being just recycled and reused but i do think he did a really good job on there and the last thing we got to talk about his rollout his rollout like what he's doing and i don't know if y'all been following this i hope i hope y'all have but cole is in a honda civic riding around the country scooping up people from like on twitter like yo i'm in a civic come ride with us and listen to the music you know he was out here um silver springs the other day just yo where you at i'm gonna come pick you up and he just grabbing random people and driving around and making stops at colleges and shit and just like touching the people yo he was involved my daughter said he was around morning yeah he's making the rounds yeah man with a cd player it's him and his man shout out to eve like love and respect eve like all the way man and it had to be on the music pod when i talk about all the reasons why i really respect eve but shout out to eve it's him and eve they got a cameraman back there and i'm sure they got cold gotta have some security somewhere else i think like there's no way j cole just sold 291 000 records just driving around like this he's got some security somewhere he might put jadakus jadakus walking around new york only on security jadakus and cold jadakus respectfully jayda and cold two different beasts man that's more like when people be like the cam ron and the cold hey that's two cold one of the biggest hip-hop artists ever yeah right especially right now too right now it's i mean the locks you know the locks you know i mean jayda was jayda but like right now cold yeah yeah don't just don't compare but but yeah so that's what he doing he just going around he was in like atlanta just going to the hoods or the colleges just in a honda civic just playing his music talking to people taking pictures doing all that shit like it's normal for cole right we done heard cole pull up at people house and like listen to the album at they house and he went back to his old landlord's house before with his kid like that's normal shit for cole but just to watch him do it now like hey i always wanted to sell my cd this way and then being able to do especially with your last album so i honestly think and i'm gonna shut up we done with this topic, but I just think J. Cole is doing everything he wanted to do. Because he's an independent artist now, right? He ain't got no label. Rock Nation talking what to do. So I think he's doing everything he wanted to do this time around. You know what I mean? I gotta respect that, especially if you're saying this year's last J. Cole album, or at least for a while, because it's supposed to be his retirement album. Yeah, shout out J. Cole for that. No, that's pretty cool. Going around in the city. Yeah. I mean Go ahead Noah Some would look at it like some cosplay Like broke type shit Like some new new Lauren London ATL type shit I'm gonna shut up about that I mean that's the rule he always It's not an act he likes to be Unassuming yeah He goes on with him cause he's like the every man's Every day's MC Yeah So hey man Um I watched the cat waiting session bro the Cat Williams comedy thing on I think it's Netflix's own bro and I wanted to mention this man because you know um we all know or kind of agree that Chappelle is like the goat right like the goat of like comedy or whatever man but man Cat Williams is there too bro Cat Williams man look I know people don't like Cat Williams they got their own little whatever bro that like when I watched Chappelle's last one bro it was like it was funny but I was also listening to a message seemed like I was listening to a message he was trying to deliver and he bring it back around on you and all this stuff that is Cat William thing bro I was laughing probably the first two minutes it was like but after that bro man Cat William had me tears coming out my eyes man it was funny as shit bro he had some stuff in there man like hey bro the Trump shit It's so goddamn funny, bro. Like, bro, he got some stuff on there, man. He talked about, man, he talked about us. You're so mad. Like, you know, people love us, bro. Bro, oh my goodness, bro. This man is funny, bro. I want to tell you guys, I want you guys to watch it, man. But it is funny, bro. I started it. I started it yesterday or the day before yesterday. I was super tired. only was operating off like three hours of sleep. I turned it on and I guess I watched that first 10 minutes that you said wasn't on. And I turned that shit off, bro. So I didn't like his... So the Great America comedy show that Cat Williams did, I think it's classic. It's fucking hilarious. And every show before that, I think it's classic. And I always said I laugh more when I watch Cat Williams than I do when I watch Chappelle. I feel like Chappelle is better, like a more skilled technician, but I laugh much more at Cat Williams. And I can't take away from his ability at being a technician. He's great. But me and Angelina went to see Cat Williams. The last show he did, the one like during COVID, I think, and like coming out of COVID or whatever, I didn't like it. I didn't like it. I liked Lunell more than I liked Cat Williams at that show. and then that show came out on tv and it was it was called like world war three or something like that i forgot i didn't like it i still didn't like it i'm like well let me watch it see if i like it i still didn't like it um so then so now i went into this one a little iffy because i heard mike f show on on netflix is amazing i i'm iffy about mike f too because some of these shows i'd be like so i went into this one damon i can't lie i ain't get past that first 10 minutes so and it wasn't only because I didn't think it was funny it was also because I was tired so I'm gonna go back in now that you said that because I think Cat Williams is funny as shit funny bro I'm gonna go back in now that you said that yeah man take a look at it man it's most definitely entertaining this hero man the shit he was saying man it was like it's relative what we got going on right now man he was going in bro like he said he said in there man like nothing is all limit for me so he started kind of like in that first about 15 10-15 minutes he said that and after that bro he was going in bro oh yeah see I didn't even get to him saying that like when I'm at he talk about lashes and odors and shit like that yeah yeah yeah where I'm at right now how ladies how women been taking over like how women been taking over that's where I'm at right now yeah yeah I didn't watch it so I can't comment on it we uh came off um Club Shay Shay He had the whole world looking at him He dropped a bomb Off of that So I'm going to get around to it Yeah His hat was kind of turning That was a big ass hat he was wearing man Yeah that was He little though He little bro That was a fetish right Yeah a fetish Hey You know what I thought was funny He got a suit is there to solve his hands bro he's here trying to hobble on his nails too as he was finished speaking of comedians I don't know if y'all even know what I'm talking about but speaking of comedians I want to take a second to thank god that my 2026 is not starting out as bad as Corey Hokel's Corey Hokel was about to be cancelled from the underground bro he was beefing and just about to throw hands or something like that? Yeah, he had old boy on his show. No, I mean, much more than that, though, right? But, yeah, so he had old boy on his show, and, you know, they got into it about something. So Corey Hooker was like, he asked his co-host to switch seats so he could sit next to the dude. And, like, dude wanted to smoke. Like, dude ain't back down. You know what I mean? Like, he even was like, all right, let's turn these mics off. come on Corey Holcomb just kept talking with dude left Corey Holcomb like turned up more on dude like when he left like you know what I mean like after the dude left but after that TMZ released a video of Corey Holcomb hitting on the lady like hitting on a woman like punching her in the face mushing her real hard and then in that same video one of the dudes tried to break it up him and Corey Holcomb kind of got into like a little shuffle. It ain't look like, it ain't look like Corey Holcomb was going farewell. You know? So then, you know, Joe button talked about it on his podcast. Corey Holcomb and them responded. And then Joe Buck, Joe button went scorched earth on him on like the next episode. And then there's other people, some lawyer now and just Corey Holcomb just is not having, he's been getting gigs canceled because of the, him putting his hands on a woman. which I mean is quite well deserved and he seems delusional about it like y'all gonna believe TMZ yes it's a video it's a video of you you know what I mean so for the listeners I didn't even want to explain at all but like I'm just happy my 2026 is not starting out like because like I said he's already an alternative listener like he only survives off of he hasn't had a legit like comedy central HBO type of stand up in like maybe 10-12 years I'm assuming he already been like quasi blacklisted like so he only got a cult following he about to lose that like how do you lose a cult following and he is going to lose a lot more minutes with Joe Glenn hey Joe Joe Joe said that man like ashy yet like ashy and damn at this oh my goodness man did you peep the um the Ja Rule Tony Yayo Ogunmurda flight team yeah yeah yeah Ja Rule apologized he's like man I'm about to be a grandfather I don't even doing this yeah we can't I'm too old I'm nigga stupid man but that's the level of petty you know the 50 guy with his henchmen so yeah 50 actually had one of the best super bowl commercials i don't know if it aired during the super bowl but it was a super bowl it was a doordash commercial uh that that was really good and really creative like like i said i don't know if it actually aired for the super bowl but it was about getting beef delivered and like he had a bunch of puns like a bunch of puns on um like puffy and like you know all all of that stuff like he had the honey he had the honeycombs yeah yeah yeah it's about beef you know yeah that's crazy yeah i i know what you're getting at but i knew it when i initially said it like i know my brain is working my brain is working but uh yeah you know he had the ja rule joint he had some puff disses he just had a whole bunch of little disses in in the doordash it was great it was really good Damon yeah man I freaking so I went to St.A.G.E. for a week went up there and did some type of symposium for all aviation CMCs I guess the new aviation CMCs with the force and you know they invited the wife out so me and her went up there for a week and we had some fun up there man the weather was great 77 degrees you know what I mean I'm in class I see Ella out there, you know, after she got in her little class with her feet in the sand. You know, we met up with a couple friends down there, man. We just miss San Diego, man. Like, I don't miss the prices. I don't miss it being so expensive, but the area, man, that people used to know, people used to hang with, things like that, man. I just miss San Diego man How far was it It a shit Was it like a five drive Now let me tell you what they did to me. They rented me a vehicle to drive. Right? That's crazy. But it was all about the shutdown stuff that was happening. And they wasn't sure about the fun and stuff. So they said, you know what? Let's go ahead and get a rental car. You got to drive down here. I said, okay. We drove it. No big deal. Where am I? I'm good with it. It's about five by five hours drive, which ain't crazy, but still a nice little drive. Yeah, man, I most definitely had to get out of there quick because my son had a senior night, so I made it back for that on Friday. It's a little bit different. I mean, I got four kids. This is the youngest one. It's a little bit different this time because I know he's the last one. You know what I mean? So at dinner night, last one, you know. Tear it up? You know, I don't do all that cheer stuff. You know, I had a cheer. I don't know what I'm feeling, but I don't have a cheer day, bro. But I was in the chair. So what did you look in the mirror and beat on your chest or something? No. No. But I think from an emotion standpoint, it was a little bit different. So how do you display them? That's what I'm saying. You say you don't got tear ducts And you say something hit different How? It hit me different because When I say emotional I feel like the hugging Me and Ella looking at each other Knowing it's the last one That type of emotion stuff It just hits a little bit different From there I think DJ The dude get grown so much I thought DJ was going to be the one that's freaking 5'5". He hit a late growth for now he's like 6'6". Even in that picture it's like, damn, bro. This dude is grown up. It's crazy, man. DJ is grown up, man. It was a good week, man. Like I said, Miss Dinago, man. I don't know, man. Maybe think about where I'm going next, man, when I got this and what I really want to do. You talking about like duty station next? I don't know. I don't know, bro. Like, if I go somewhere else and do anything else, do I want to go that route and get back down there? I don't know. Mm. That doesn't make you think. Hey, all right, well, look, Aaron, you ain't been around, bro. Where you been at, man? I was at, for the past two weeks, I was getting back in the floor of work because I went to, I was TED. I went to a Keystone course I kind of got an early look at it in my career because of the uniqueness of the tour I'm at being with the hospital, with DHA and the army but a Keystone is for people who are either in or slayed to go to a flag or general officer or a joint command tour so two weeks it's across all branches so it's everyone every branch includes Space Force representation there. So you get to meet everybody. You get to meet all the senior advisors of every branch. The chair major chairs, the SEAC. Travel around. You get to go to the Pentagon. Then you go to Southcom, JTIF Spacecom, Trace Command out there in Colorado. Fort Bliss. Looking at the border mission. It's a lot. I gained a lot. I think that's probably like the the best course I've ever been to. And that's after, you know, being a SCA graduate and CMC Cobb and everything. I can say that that is the best course I've ever been to. I feel different leaving it. Mine was SCA, man. That frozen lemonade is great. Yeah, man, but you're there and you get to meet everybody and what they say like a rising tide rises all ships like that's like you really feel the company you're in like everyone just being on the same court sharing their knowledge sharing their experiences it was a lot it was good how did you get in there how did you get like um you can't you can't you can't tell you that part oh okay it's like now yeah I think most people don't think that us as a senior listed CMC is we don't get career development. We do have career development, right? Whether you go to Felix course or you go to this. So I had a CDB with my Izzik. And I just said, hey, you know, it's on our listed career path or our ladder, so to speak. I mentioned it. I was able to get a seat. Based off of, you know, what was that? mention it you mentioned it yes okay i'm gonna go mention it at my next fucking cdp yeah but it's a lot of jewels man i took down a lot of notes um a lot of notes a lot of quotes some things aren't like revolutionary but the way they said it and it's kind of just like you know what yeah why am i not doing that um yeah so you got one one non-revolutionary quote to share don't negotiate with the non-negotiables. So what I mean by that, we would jump in time zones, like three time zones in four days. And no matter where we're at, you know, we had a group of, a couple of cats like, yo, man, where's the gym at? We're going to PT. Without fail. Yeah. Or they said, hey, all right, the time zone, I got to make sure I'm able to FaceTime my kid or whoever at this time. They did not care. And, you know, People always make an excuse. And even in three SEACs ago, I think his name was Cologne Ortiz, I think. He was Air Force of Illinois SEAC. He put in the notes. He said, yo, man, you have to make time to PT. Because if you're not able to function, how can you advise if you're not healthy? So it's a non-negotiable. It's a requirement of your job to get your PT time in and to get your required sleep. So that, just seeing it live, man. like the Air Force, the Space Force, the three guys in the Space Force, it did not matter. We PT'd, you know, did the schoolwork and yeah, made a point to go fellowship and eat. We had, let me see, we had the Canadian, New Zealanders, Australia. Yeah, so we were in Virginia and we got up early, went to PT, let's get breakfast. I looked at a Canadian dude and I was like yo man you been to Waffle House yet? He's like what's that? I was like I got you So we took him to Waffle House and gave him the real American experience with that So 10,000 Yeah So you know Here's my confession Sometimes I wish I could Say three CX ago and know the person's Name like that's just not the Nothing that's not like a joke Against you or nothing That's just not the Seller that I am Like three CX ago I didn't even know What the fuck a CX was To be honest right And I'm working on that So I'm learning that But I always see people like that That could do shit like that And I'll be like damn how do they know this much Like I admire that Like I admire that shit I'm the same way I don't even know it either bro When we talk about something and I feel like I'm about to talk about whatever subject it is, I have to go do my research. Okay, let me make sure I know this person before I get to talking about it. I'm that person. But to my what I be thinking to, I don't know if it was then or not, bro. I don't know if it's like engineering thing, but I just remember just being locked in on engineering shit. I wasn't outside. I was never outside like this, bro. I was never outside like this, bro. You know? You lucky to catch us at the uh, hey, bro. They like Troy Black That was the last dude named right Troy Black Troy Black coming man We in the spaces I'll tell you what that jumped out to me though When the chairman Chairman came Chairman of the staff And then the SEAC They came to that course Two days after Everything happened in Venezuela They didn't care They were not missing this and that was impressive to me with all the briefs I had going on like no we're not missing this we're going to be here for that course yeah I'm sure it was impressive to you for the listeners Aaron Polly Damon it's an insider that I don't even think nobody get I just me and Aaron be having conversations off like I said that for a reason I said that for a reason just like Aaron Aaron be saying his little shit for a reason I went back on one episode Aaron said some shit and I was like yo if anybody catches that we're in trouble and luckily nobody caught it but I don't know much about this collision that happened right I'm kind of learning it getting informed of it it wasn't a near miss I guess it was a tap right or something like that they really touched it like what happened what's this old collision during this rest it was the USS Truxton in the Caribbean along with all the forces out there and they're doing regular RAS and you can even pull it up online you know some of the crew members took their phones out yeah I saw it so they collided but they were able to push on a mission afterwards two people were injured but they said minor injuries and they were able to push on a mission so I think because once again they were able to pull away and push on a mission is not getting as much bad press well it's something that i do want to give bad press and i might sound like the old man here on the porch but watching sellers pull out their phones uh coming close to a fucking collision is the most 20 26 shit that i've ever seen but also very very very weird i i don't like that shit like and maybe i just sound old as fuck but i don't like seeing videos from the seller perspective of a damn collision my knee jerk reaction I'm with that but then I'm like alright this is the world we're in it's not going nowhere right right right right now then I say well what if they weren't part of evolution but now bump that everyone on that ship is involved with evolution whether you're actively on a watch bill or if you're on standby everyone's a safety but you know I just temper it with like man unless you put your phones down someone's going to take a phone it just don't look safe bro so first off it's the evolution right can you have your phone like I'm I could be completely forgetting it for the people that's out there right now right uh it's been a while since I've done a rash can you have your phone doing that shit it's not saying you can't right no no we can't have our phone because ain't we at fucking aren't we at like uh they put it in airplane mode it's still recording alright so your phone's in airplane mode ok so your phone's in airplane mode um but like you're not like I don't know cause what if my whole issue was what if it wasn't like just that tap what if it was worse like and you out there with your phone you not you don't have positive control and like I said maybe I just sound old and for the listeners tell me it's the same as if people see a uh a car on fire civility civilians bro but it's people to people people drive and see a car on fire they don't stop and run the car off and do something my argument yeah that's my argument is that we shouldn't be doing civilian shit when it's when it's an actual collision right are we coming close to a collision it's time to be military members like it's time to listen i'm just like the next man like we do a a podcast you know i embrace people that got social media and all that shit but best believe that if we broke off and we had that like in a pearl harbor type situation like if it was a attack on our homeland i wouldn't still be potting you know i'd be like oh man they're flying the jets right now and all the way to the navy yard no i would be getting in my fucking uniform and driving the base so i could protect our base like all that social media shit is done you know and maybe I'm tripping. Like I said, maybe I am tripping, Aaron. What about you, Damon? Are you recording? Maybe not you, right? How do you feel about that? I didn't see the video, but I'm thinking more that everybody is not on an evolution either, though. During that time, maybe they ask you out there recording so they may be just standing by and watching it, taking pictures of it because they want to show their family you know what I mean the ownership and what they doing or whatever so I don't know the outcome but it is the collision though that's dangerous though and I don't see how phones are out once you have a collision though that is kind of crazy what if it got worse and you out there on your phone and you fall into we've seen and maybe it's because not all these people have seen what happened in 2017. But we have people on. We just had Ken on talking about the shit. Yeah, I agree, man. I'm not trying to be maybe I am getting dull to it. It's just the phones don't go anywhere. I know also in that area on the Iwo, Iwo Jima, they lost a Marine this past week. Lost at the sea. Chukwa Wura from the Iwo. they called off a search where people had their phones out stuff is real I don't know yeah so rest well to our fellow service member right and prayers to his family but speaking on things that I just don't want to see like from sellers or people in uniform this commander that was arrested for the sex crimes right and this was a while ago now but St. John's County Sheriff's Office arrested Jonathan Saburn with assistance from Navy Criminal Investigative Services and U.S. Marshal Service. He was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation. What the fuck is that word? Lachievous? Exhibition. So molestation, exhibition, and child abuse. They began the investigation in 2025. A victim came forward to report delayed incidents of abuse. The months long investigation revealed that Saburn engaged in inappropriate behavior and touched it on several occasions with the victim when the victim was young in both St. John's and Duval County. Saburn is a commander in the United States Navy and is the deputy director of Naval Academy Sailing was arrested while on duty at Naval Station Mayport and is being held at the Duval County Jail on no bond. I don't respect him at all. you never shake his hand again shake his hands i'll shake the room before i shake his hand bro that's just what it is so um i these cases so i was recently talking to somebody that got caught up on something like this and um like they were pleading innocent so i'm gonna have a little bit of respect for that but uh it's just a disgrace watching the service member get arrested in uniform um and that's not in defense of the service member at all that's just i don't want to see that you know what i mean and again like i said i'm not defending the service member that shit is disgusting you know and you deserve to be pulled away in uniform but uh it's just you putting a disgrace on our uniform doing that type of shit man uh and so i ain't like seeing or reading and none of that. And it looks like it's a foolproof investigation. So it looked like he did whatever they're saying he did from... I just hate being a source of news and saying that without the court hearing and everything happening. Yeah. So that shit is disgusting. And I hope justice prevails in that case. And like I said, I just don't like seeing service members arrested in uniform. Aaron, I saw you kind of reacted to that. So I'm interested in why. Nah, actually, you're saying comments, man. I don't understand. I'm a little one. I'm a little one. Wow. Because I'm thinking about other parallels with things going on in the world right now. Like everything type shit? Yeah. People just not, things are not being brought to light. You know, this is, but I think, yeah. I'm a little woman. You know I'm laughing, man. I'm laughing because of your topic, bro. Your next topic, bro. Poof. Famous, man. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Yeah, man. Yeah, I'm staying away from that topic, bro, today, man. News, though. They say report news. I was just going to say we know we can't talk about it like no no somebody's on an Epstein flight manifest no we can't talk about it ain't talking about it man we can talk about the HBO program though talk to me Aaron tell me about the HBO if I could I would because I went to the link and there was nothing there and I went to it again this morning And it's supposed to be It looks like it's CrossFit and Optimized fitness I can't get behind the rollout Because I need more information The graphics look good but it's something in line With cultural fitness And just really Tailoring the PT Programs to make us More in line with like athletes With the sleep studies and And the count up with the calories and it seems like a more focused tailored person says person sailor tailored fitness program health program yeah i guess i mean whenever we get more what's the other shit like noom is it called noom uh for the uh the noom courses for the uh people that's on fat now that's gonna be free for everybody um is that is that what it's called uh talk about weight loss I don't know My Reddit it was like just On the skim it wasn't the deep dive Or anything So it's another It's another It's another one too that's like Devoted to like Helping out people for like Weight loss that they working with The military too And I think it's something like Noom or something I forgot the name of it and y'all I don't know either so it's time to move on from that So this thing you shared us from that Compliance Yeah, so, excuse me. Yeah, Sailor, she came on NAMP and said, hey, I'm on a DG. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm a single parent, one child. I wonder if anyone has a daycare on base and recommendations for housing. So in the comments, some folks were like, yo, like, CDC has a wait list, and how is it that you're getting underway and you have no childcare? and my family care plan fell through sponsorship. Then I saw it on the chief page, and they're like, yeah, she should be going to stay behind this. So I don't know what the final result is with this, but it's crazy to me that if that's what it was, that sponsorship program fell through, this person, like how does it come to where she's a day before getting underway and is not resolved that she's either going to stay behind or just a family care plan square. That's a CMC program, command program. This message is hard to understand because it says anyone stationed in San Diego, the DDG-92. So anyone stationed in San Diego, the DDG-92, right? That's the mobson, right? Amari sounds like a fucking moose right now. Like it's crazy. She sound like a moose right now. running through this house. So anyone stationed in San Diego, the DDG 92, I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm a single parent with one child. I'm wondering if there's daycare on base and recommendations for housing. The way that I read that is not like, and I could be reading it weirdly, but I don't read that like this person is about to go underway tomorrow and they already on the 90, on the Momsen, I read it like they about to go to San Diego tomorrow so they could be on the Momsen and they looking for somewhere to live and daycare. Because why would they be asking about housing? Now, I guess other people knew more from looking at the comments or something, but I'm not reading it. I don't read this as like, she on a ship and it's about to go on her way. yeah and i don't read the i don't read it as her um like if i was in this situation it seemed like it'll be more to this though it seems like it's nonchalant like it ain't like it's an emergency right to me that's an emergency you know i mean like i don't read it as it's like this is like man i don't got nowhere for my kid to be i gotta get on the way i'm not just reading it that deep i'm just reading it like i kind of like dumb old reading it kind of like yeah i'm just looking for daycare and looking for somewhere you know giving the right information my eyes locked into the comment from the chief page saying that she should stay behind on the stay behind list I locked in on that not just the general general conversation I'm about to hit the area report here what do y'all know you know but even still sponsorship right yeah yeah what's your family dynamics welcome board package all that like and that's what some people saying like yo no offense i feel for you but you're leaving tomorrow you're just asking this now where's your sponsor right uh there's other people you know cdc has a long wait list get on it it's a program the one chief that's talking about the state behind this i wonder where they so so this she says she should be on the state behind this she literally checked in two days prior has she even had a chance to do her house hunting leave or anything she will need to establish her FCP. She got her orders three days before and was on a flight that night. The ship should not be taking her underway that close to reporting. I don't even know. And this might be us as a platform, like a news platform or whatever we want to call ourselves, reporting shit from social media. I don't know. They're not saying the sponsor program on their command is off or none of that. I was just saying, it just caught my eye, you know. Yeah. What if there is a situation like that happening? That would be crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If it was a situation, yeah. I mean, sponsors, right? That sponsor program is essential, right? That's another one of the programs that's super essential, you know. Hey, did y'all see that Military Times interview, the CNO Military Times interview? It was like a 21-minute interview. yeah i got the like like 15 minutes of it no i don't you couldn't finish the last six no and the reason why i couldn't okay some came up brother i want to respect you but i can't and i'm gonna tell you why because but you know what I would say man it's like it's what we know from the CNO man it's stuff he been saying you know what I mean it wasn't I popping in that interview it's stuff we already know and stuff he always talk about you know what I mean yeah yeah it was definitely like yeah it was definitely run of the mill right dude said y'all I'm gonna ask you the hardest question what you doing for the holidays man that was the last question he was like i'm spending time with my family you know and even that felt you know and no offense to the cno or not and this song got to do cno this got something to do with these media platforms um and no offense to military times either this got this just got something to do with how these things happen because even the question of what you're doing for the holidays it's like you gotta ask it because now you want to also humanize the cn know so now you're gonna give him a chance to tell you that he's a family that's the way that's just the way you know like yeah we talked about you know the sellers we talked about uh tech we talked about and every answer was really like a headline like they ain't dive in a deep do podcast please like somebody cno somebody whoever do a podcast please at this point um but like it was just an overarching kind of top line things, right? Because one of my do-betters is about one of my do-betters is about the barracks, the whole barracks task force thing. I want to talk about it a little bit. And that also has nothing to do with the CNO. I watched the interview. We're going to put the link into the show notes for you guys to check it out. I also think it's cool that CNO is out there doing these things. Going and doing these all hands, putting it up on his YouTube page, going and doing these interviews, putting them up on a YouTube page. So if you want to see what the CNO had to say, you could just click on a link and see what the CNO had to say yourself. It's no filter of access. It's just, to me, a filter of content, in my opinion. Did I say that right? Dan Damon. Yeah. You got no thoughts on that at all here? No. Are we recording right now? Yes. Okay. Our podcast where we have thoughts on things. No, I haven't thought. You can't say it on the podcast. Okay. Well, Damon having some technical issues and we're going to keep recording and if he comes back, he comes. If not, then... So we got a question from a listener. It says, I need some mentorship. When you decided to re-enlist, what factors did you consider? I'm at this crossroads. I'm overly motivated. I love people. I love what I do, but I'm realizing that I'm a rare breed. I'm not seeing a lot of sellers around me that have this same energy, motivation, our mindset. I have my education and I'm continuing my education. Getting out wouldn't be hard for me right now. I've networked and built relationships. I know I could get a job in the civilian sector, making a good wage with opportunity for growth and income. On the flip side, I love sellers and I know what I could bring to the table as a leader in the Navy and as a seller. The environment that I could cultivate even at my level currently is amazing. I'm not saying this to brag. So I'm curious, when you all decided to sign and re-enlist, what was your why and how did that influence your decision? Did you have any regrets? Very respectfully, AZ2 Jackson. First off, AZ2, thanks for all of the support. You always support us. You always in the messages and kind of sharing things about the podcast. So we appreciate you. I think for ASD too man I think you answered your own question I think you're going to ring a list will they ask yeah I think you need to ring a list because if you're still getting fun from doing this you should do it and also because you've set yourself up on what I say as CDBs is a two way path you're competitive whether you're doing six more years or if you're doing six more months For me As a second class A new second class When I re-enlisted I was starting my family And I wanted stability I had short duty And I was still Getting fulfillment But for me It was more of Starting a young family Keeping stability And having short duty To have a short footing And it was a short duty That I wanted And somebody would have Set us up For me to get out or to keep pushing. We kept pushing. So the family stability dynamic weighed heaviest in our at the time decision for us to stay Navy. Yeah. You stay in. You do this if you want to, not because you have to, if you could avoid it. Hey Jackson, man, this hat, man, I got this hat on. It's laying crazy on my head, buddy, but I'm trying to fix it. This hat is laying crazy. This This ain't going to be good for the broadcast, man. So he said, when you decided to re-enlist, what factors did you consider? I'm going to only go back to re-enlisting as a second, just like Aaron did, right? So when I was a second and I re-enlisted, I don't know that I had the buy-in yet. And I think you hear a lot of leaders talk about not being 100% bought into your Navy why. You know, I might be the personal why. And for me as a second I hadn't yet hit the goals That I wanted to hit To get out It was things I wanted to do to get out of the Navy I didn't do them So some people had started a family Some people got a new car or something And I also did have a new car too But I didn't get done So it ain't this long motivational story Or journey or nothing like that I just honestly didn't hit the wickets My checklist that I wanted to hit To get out And on top of that, I was having fun in the Navy and I was accomplishing things in the Navy as well. So I can't say that those things were not happening. And plus, I got a bonus. I got some money. You know what I mean? It was a couple of those. I got money when I enlisted. I got money when I reenlisted. And I got money when I reenlisted, I think. So I think I got money a few times. But that was it. I bought into the Navy a little bit after that, a couple years after re-enlisting as a second. So that was my why. So for me, my advice to you is going to be a little different than Damon. I mean, the errands is, I'm going to say, just follow your heart. And I think that that's what should be done in this lifetime with every decision that you make. And some people might not agree. But I think every decision you make in this lifetime should satisfy you. And, you know, you shouldn't be looking back at the decision that you make with regrets. Which, like, are you going to look back? If you get out the Navy, are you going to look back, like, what would have happened if I would have stayed in? If you don't get out the Navy, are you going to look back at, like, what would have happened if I would have got out? And naturally, you might look back either one of those ways, but which one is going way more? And whatever one you think is going way more, I think that's where you know your answer is. You know So that's that Hopefully that helped Hey so Damon like we said Damon had A technical issue however He had a hero of the week Uh Freddie Stowers What was his name? You calling him Stowers Okay Alright Freddie Stowers Um I'm not gonna read The citation right so this was World War I right I'm gonna talk a little bit about Freddie Stowers so World War I well a couple things first right he was the only African American that was that got a Medal of Honor from World War I right his CO nominated him immediately after the efforts but the Pentagon said the paperwork was misplaced and we didn't find it until we modernized our systems in 1990. So it took 72 years for him to get, you know, the recognition that he deserved for this. And here's a little bit of what happened. So September 28th, just days after, so this is 1917, days after his company was in the midst of an attack on Hill 188, Champagne, Marne, Sector, France, when enemy forces, they looked like they were giving up. So according to the War Department, German soldiers emerged from the trenches waving a white flag. They had their arms in the air. All military actions that signaled surrender. This was a rouge. However, right? So the Americans, including Corporal Stowers, went to capture to surrender to surrendering germans another wave of enemies like they arose and they opened fire so the company c which uh that's who stowers was assigned to the the lieutenant and the ncos were killed in a fight very quickly so stowers who was 21 at the time took command and without hesitation he implored his men to advance on the germans right so he was mortally shot wounded and dying And he continued to fight, inspiring his men to push the enemy back. So with him leading a counterattack Americans took out an enemy machine gun position and went to capture Hill 188 Right And that was was a vital that effort was vital in that time as well Aaron might know a little bit more about that than me, but that effort was vital in that time. But like I said, after that, he was nominated for the Medal of Honor, but the nomination wasn't processed. Pentagon said that he misplaced the paperwork. And then some people, it's people that think it wasn't misplaced but deliberately lost. segregation and racial bias at the time. It might be the reason why the paperwork was lost. And then data systems were fixed in the 90s and his recommendation was found. And the Pentagon quickly took action to give the corporal a long overdue recognition and honor that he deserved. Share here. so I was going to have more on it because I kind of saw that one late when I was doing a review but a lot of a lot of Patriots those recognitions were lost and it took a lot of effort during the Clinton years to get those awards found reviewed and the proper accolades given so yeah, try to dip praise ours yeah, and I thought it was a good Hero of the Week Even especially for Black History Month Because it is Black History Month So I thought it was a good Hero of the Week Even for that What I want to get into is Unwritten prereqs for chief consideration Right so this ain't nothing official Nothing Navy sponsored or stamped But And maybe just one From you Aaron but I'm going to give mine I think every chief And it's like What you think every chief should know or have done before they become a fucking chief, right? I think every chief should know how to prepare and execute a brief to either your department, your head of department or department head, depending on what ship you're on, or the triad, right? I think every, especially the triad, I think every chief should know how to brief the triad, you know? But yeah, so brief your department, your head of department or the triad. That's one of my prereqs, I think. like you shouldn't be a chief if you don't know how to do that shit yeah I agree I've seen something in the write up for NTMS for Navy Talent management system for us but he said that at a certain level at a certain level you should be able to write and brief at the executive level so for me I think on the chief level you should be able to craft I think a chief should be able to craft in all hands email or POD note especially if they're running a program or a department. I think you should be able to convey that. I think that goes along with your unwritten prereq of knowing how to brief execute your department head or triad. Yeah. It's Mando, yo. How important is it for you to know your people's family names? Your family's spouse? yeah like your people like like your chiefs and your mess uh so so this comes up from me being in a conversation with a few friends recently um and cmc's uh well chiefs retired whatever but one of them was cmc uh you know one of my mentors i would say and he was talking about a leader of his from the past who who never asked him about like his family didn't know his kids name stuff like that right and that that held weight to him and that never really held i i never looked at that as like a weighty thing for me like i care about my people take care of you know whatever so i never but i never like looked at it like a mandatory thing so it was eye-opening for me to know that somebody did you know and then like after that i went back to work i got with my chiefs in my first classes and like did a round table where i got all of their like spouses names their kids' names and their kids' ages, just so I had it. But for you, how important is it to know your people's family's names and all that? For me, it's not that important. Not that I don't care. I do care. I put more weight into knowing, trying to know as much about that person's family dynamics. Yeah. If the command is small, I would expect that to be cultivated more frequently. But larger commands, maybe in the small departments, right? But I just try to put a higher emphasis on do I know what their family dynamics are? Are you caring for a parent? You know, did your older brother raise you or something like that? But that's nice to know. Try your best. I think sincerity carries more weight. Yeah. yeah yeah then that's how I always been too that's how I always been like just just always been me you know and whatever that looks like and feels like you know it's me you know so but you know I just found it interesting and that was a you know that was a thing yeah let me I think well you got topics like that in season like yeah what's her name what's his name you know initiation right so talking about season I asked the question to my mess and I posed to the region and I asked the question do you let non-chiefs know the contents they'll see the inside of your vessel and see your charge book and I posed that question and I'm not going to say it was a light in the rod but it sparked a lot of conversation once again like do you let non-chiefs see the contents of your vessel in charge book yeah i mean now what type of question was that for you was that the type of question that like you ask people like and you had feedback for them from it or were you just asking to get there like how they do it how they do it if yes if no why so so what made that a lightning rod thing were people trying to change other people's like opinion about it it was more about the tradition uh the same kind of recipes like nothing's sacred yeah so you've seen everyone like but but then nothing is as sacred anymore i have my reasons i gave my answer and yeah i had some eyebrows raised but i gave the reasoning behind it so my answer is no i don't um my answer is i don't and it's out of respect for um the tradition and holding that part because we get initiated, right? So it's out of respect for that and holding that part of the initiation sacred. No other reason. Like, do I think that like, am I trying to protect what's in it? Like, it's a fucking treasure chest with a bunch of like jewels, even though like metaphorically it is, right? But outside of like that, like, no. And I'm pretty like new wave I'm pretty new wave I do shit different anyway That one I just try to hold that to whatever The traditions are because we get initiated And I try to have respect To what initiations are And what they mean So I don't show people I'm assuming you do show people And that's what made some people raise their eyebrow I have shown some Yeah I don't know if Damon can hear I definitely want to get Damon's opinion on this You heard the question, Damon? No, I didn't hear the question. I'll pose the question again. So in my mess and in the region chat, I asked the question, have you let non-cheese see the contents of your vessel in your charge book? So why, if no, why? So Donald was like, he doesn't because he, even though he is, you know, with progress and open thinker. He still is in line with tradition, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, no, right, no. Not that I feel like not as like if it was posed to me and somebody asked me or whatever. That'd probably be another way of thinking, but it just always, it's never been like, it's never been a thing. So I'm not going to go outside and be like, hey, man, you want to come? You know what I mean? Take a look at this and nothing like that. But it's never a thing, though. You know what I mean? No one ever going outside of, you know, coming and talking to me. Hey, I'm a first class. Hey, CMC, can I look at your, you know, inside of your box? I don't think a first class will come and ask me that. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't think so, right? because they know the traditions and the path and all that stuff so they probably feel like they're not even going to ask that question because maybe because they want to go through and have their own experiences and things like that now just to me honestly man like my box is right here man this thing don't even get bro to be honest even during the season man I have my shit sitting there man people like even going through don't even really look at my shit you know what I mean like and I have it right there unless I bring them in and then you know hey you know that's your story maybe something like that but my shit can be sitting here man for six weeks and a motherfucker won't even ask to look at it you know what I mean it's what it is man I'm different I'm not letting everyone see it so just for I believe all charge books aren't way the same my charge book it is really one of my prized possessions like to the point where like when I die my kids better not give away their grandmother's vinyls that I still have and they better not do anything crazy with my charge book that's how much I put into it I open it, I train to it a lot the reason why the reason why I'm not against showing it because one is mine and then two, when I saw on YouTube and on Pinterest and on Google searches people cracking open charge books and vessels, I was like, what the hell is this? Yeah. It's out there, right? So I'm like, alright, so evolution is undefeated, so I'm like, how do we control the narrative? So I had a check out with a department head And he's going command. And we're talking about the season and all that. And during his time at the command, he had some challenges, but he came out the back end pretty, pretty well. And it was an exact charge in my book that applied to him. Oh, Lord, what I said, the back end? No, no, he got it. Go ahead, bro. We took early. Hey, my brain working today. I got you, bro. All right. So. So I took out the charge and I was like, hey, sir, I think it's really plastic. What do I do now? Nothing, nothing, nothing. You got it. You got it. I'm listening. So he read the charge for my charge, Buck. Right? And the light bulb went off. It just hit. And he really understood. And then he's in command now. So I know that he's, he really is invested in the season. Yeah. You know? and I had two other cases where one in particular was a first class that everyone said, they wrote the golden rule they said, yo, everyone thinks he's going to make it this year, he didn't and I said, look man, it's additions you know, this is worth it I said, I look at this thing all the time first season and once again, I took out a charge and he read it and it just resonated and you know, he picked up Chiefs next season, I was able to because CMC during a season it works so I'm not all willy nilly with it I'm not just flying around like hey look at this nah once I saw that it's out there online once I saw one season at the next they selling vessel vessel kits what the hell is this shit right so I was like alright let me how do we keep tradition but still evolve with the times and then more people don't care about being chief so if we share some traditions and good taste and keeping with traditions um more people want to have some buy-in like you said before so if everybody want to come in the comments like are you great tradition shut up man um deal with the times there's going to be somebody who's going to uh take their grandfather's or grandmother's charge book open it see all the jewels in there and publish like a book like on some Marcus Aurelius meditation is crap then what's going to happen? It's going to change so I say keep traditions as your charge book but also you got to be able to evolve for the times they going to publish it like a book and see like pictures of a bank the chief's message of bank one of the worst charges I got was from a prior mickbaw too so you ignore that huh? no I mean I ain't got nothing on it but when D-Guts did the whole unmax unmasked thing and like when he started doing the videos on YouTube he brought his vessel onto a YouTube video, opened that shit up and like opened the charge up like all on YouTube like yo, I'm going against the establishment, ah, like he did that, like you know what I mean and me and him had talked before that because he told me that was his plan and I said the same thing you said like it's out there, like it's on all of those places that you say they are but I even don't even say that because I even don't even say that or like nothing about Goatlock or whatever because I still want people to find it and one of the things I learned about like Junior Sellers they don't really give a fuck about none of this shit till it's time for them to you know what I mean and I don't think that and I'm not talking about them all right I see Aaron that frustrated you man they know more than they let on they do like they went to ELD this past week and so I don't know how it came up but dude was like well my sister the chief and I just seen your box yeah I just seen and I'll tell you about it here what is in there and the stage chief who was doing the court was like you do that I'm shutting that shit down and he was like oh yeah yeah but in a mass quantity man a lot of them a lot from what I've seen I don't give a damn about that shit until it's time for them to when I was one I didn't care about it until it was time for me to that's why you're doing them record reviews and people got nams in their record that people got nams that should have been in their record that ain't in their record but it's time for them to submit their package they're like what the hell it's just my opinion and I don't think it's wrong I think like right now I'm trying to get the scullery working I could give two shits about next show I got an opinion about package reviews and rodeos my man said he got an opinion next show can we say it now can we say it now you want me say it now I'm not a fan of those awesome yeah even I use them but it's a certain thing it's like if there's so much information that's out there to go find people. They post a listing for prior board members. Everything is there. If you have not I don't like those rodeos if that's what you're looking for every year. I think you should go out there and see people out and get it. Not have it handed to you. You made me think about that. What's up? Is it wrong if somebody sent me package and it just was so bad that I ain't want to respond, man. Like, is that wrong? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, Domo, I think you should respond, Domo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not saying that it happened. Not saying it happened, but you know. My package review is really easy now, bro, because I learned real quick, man, that I ain't set no boards, so I'm just looking for, I'm looking for animation. You know what I mean? I'm going through people's packages looking at animation, ain't missing nothing and things like that. I don't get into the craziness. But even that, you know, it's a second set of odds, but I just think you should be able to do your thing. There are animations out there. Alright, so somebody sent y'all they packaged, right? And let's go through this a little bit. Somebody sent y'all they packaged and it is bad. Define that. Presentation or? No, bad. They are not ready for chief like we're not about to make it right okay um how do y'all how do you tell him so so to me dumbo in a damage control world man it's real easy for me though come on david how you think i got it i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna go i'm gonna I had to set the scene, man. Because what I'm going to do, because I'm assuming it's bad because they need criteria. If they don't need criteria, I point those. Via email. This is an email joint. Oh, emails don't change. Don't make it in person. Via email. Via email, bro. I fucking, this is what I would do. And I haven't seen one that's bad for me to do this, but this is what I would do. Right? I will have the ladder in front of me. I will highlight the things in the ladder that they don't have. And these are some of the things you should have right here. You don't have them. Then I talk about if it's got anything to do with superior performance, hey, you got to make sure you got superior performance. Right now, I don't see that, you know, in your thing. And then at the end of the day, I feel like I got to be blunt about it. I don't know. You may need a couple more years or you may need a year or two, you know, to establish yourself. And then I'm going to end it with, but this is just my opinion. you can get opinions of others you know what I mean that's how I'm kind of gonna you know put it but Dumbo I think it's a real thing to tell people the truth on stuff that you've been doing for a long time too though I feel like you shouldn't sugarcoat it that much and I think they will respect it in the end if you don't sugarcoat it that much when it comes to their package they might be up there in the beginning like damn fucking CMC hit me close the head but then it's like Yeah, man. You know, he is telling the truth, though. Yeah, like, the last person who packaged our review, and I don't know that I said they wasn't going to make it, but I definitely didn't say they were going to make it, right? Yeah. They made it, and then they had this thing. Yeah, CMC told me, like, you know, what I was seeing at that time, CMC told me I wasn't going to make it. Look at me. Like, I'm still standing. I'm like, I never said you wasn't going to make it, dog. You know what I mean? Because I don't say that. I don't say if people are going to make it or not. Yeah. That's a good point How would you handle that? The way I handled it? It happened I just said Some things Damon said ECP in accordance with this For considerations You don't have this And you have this but it is not It's not sold in the way That conveys that you're proficient In it I don't think you're making it And I hope I'm wrong and that was it I say ladder so ECP here's what I say hey this thing's off I think you need more time or this ain't it and I hope I'm wrong in no world right in no world are y'all like frustrated at this person for wasting your time no because Damon ain't saying that David ain't saying that though it I'm wrong hey stand on it speak on it sometimes it will frustrate you because if they hit me with it and they say hey I know I don't have a strong package but can you take a look at it I feel better but if you giving out the energy that you're about to make this is your best product and you send it to me and it's trash I'm getting frustrated because now I have to tell you that it's not up to par right that frustrates me right because you now talking to me like hey I know I think I got a good chance CMC you know can you take a look at this for me and then the top four things that you need you don't have you get me like what the fuck is this right so yeah that can be frustrating my opinion and it ain't a direct cut at this but my opinion is that time is valuable and I don't care who we talking about their time is valuable and respect people's time respect people's time that's my opinion on it have some respect for people's time if you know your shit ain't ready for the big leagues present it as that I know I'm not ready for big leagues can you give me some advice to help me get ready for the big leagues don't make somebody think because if you ask me to review your package I got like a whole process like I gotta sit down with it I gotta I gotta wife and a kid man I got a whole process that I gotta do to look at somebody for real I got family I'm talking about Piggy next Friday man oh yeah I'm fighting for my life man hey man I got I got a whole Valentine's weekend to plan for or not do you wanna watch the night in the seven kingdoms no I gotta review a package you know what I mean I gotta set the scene like I need time with that shit so don't play with that you know let me know what's up man I pull up the one computer David I got like a two computers set up I got to excel shit stop playing with me and like I said that don't got nothing to do with me it's just a topic oh Damon before we go to your topic a question for you right yeah is what are some what is one unwritten prereq that you have like pretty much you can't be a chief if you don't know how to do this or if you've never done this mom was how to prepare and execute a brief for your triad it was your department head and or your triad errands was along the lines of that I think it was more of an email right or something just be able to it was in line with but also on the written part to be able to brief and to write at an executive level to explain and you know i use the example of you should be able to craft an all hands message with the email plan of the day plan of the week oh yeah yeah i think i think mine was being able to to get your message out right on however that look at like you can be in a board scenario you can be standing in front of the mess you could be doing whatever how can you convey your message to make sure people understand you right um and and it's i think also and why it's really important is because um it's for your sailors too right if you get into a board somewhere you try to make sure your sailor say the ep sailor hey you go in some of those boards you think your sailor's an ep but If you can't convey that, you may walk out of there as a pee. You know what I mean? If you can't brief that or you can't talk to whatever you're trying to say. So I think it's making people understand your message that you're trying to put out. Yeah, so all of ours got to do with comms. Yeah, most definitely. Okay, so comms is, I guess we all look at comms like an important thing when it comes to being the chief. And it's probably a million more for the listeners. Let us know what like, you know, I know that I know Aaron was The RDC And I know that Damon got And I know Damon got a Nimitz hat on Right but in the comments If you could If you could In the comments can you let us know What some of your prereqs is To being a chief You got it off the way Aaron was the RDC And Damon got the Nimitz hat on That's off the way now But you ain't even got to say that I know y'all in the comments And I always say all the time They don't say none of that shit It'd be like yo David where you get that hat from man I saw one dude he said Damon's hoodie is crazy What hoodie was he wearing that was crazy that time I don't know man Who knows man You know Probably Raphael Faradz You know what I'm saying Probably I don't know man At this moment, if you're on YouTube, just write a comment, whatever it is. Just write cleared. Write cleared in the comment. And if you're listening to us through the podcast app on Apple, write a review, please, at this moment. It's been a while since we had a review. So write a review. Right? We should be able to do a CBB. That's a prereq. Well, Damon, but Damon had this whole thing about these EPs and I'm interested in it. Yeah, yeah, man. So it was one of the things we kind of like talked about a little bit at the when I went to the symposium up here and talking about, you know, the air gaps and all that stuff, man. And I was wondering, have it ever happened that you guys been in a situation like that where you have either a certain number of EPs and you didn't give them all? Right. An example is like having three EPs and you only gave one. I mean, we know what that does, right? It's the air gap. It hurts, right? So have you guys ever been? I have not, right? But they talked about it. So have you guys ever been in a situation like that? I haven't. I wouldn't mind doing it if I was being true and honest. But I don't know that. I don't know that. Well, let me say this. from my interaction with most COs, based off of my interactions, I don't know too many of them that would do that. Let me just say that. But I mean, I've never been in one, and I would do it at the drop. We had a one-on-one before. I was out of command with a one-on-one, and I didn't think the person was an EP, right? And I'm like, yo, I don't think this person's an EP. And my CO was like, man, we can't do that. You know what I mean? So that's my answer to that question. Yeah, I've never seen it. I've seen more discussion about what needs to get put in the comments on performance if a person wasn't all the way. You know, they could have the technical knowledge of the EP, but their leadership didn't match up. There are things that we'll put in the comments to convey that. But there wasn't no air caps though. you know and then people be reading these evals bro like it's coded language bro like you know i was somebody was talking to me about an eval man and it didn't have like it was an ep number one in the breakout statement it didn't say like press 100 now or something you know what i mean but it was like you know whatever it was a good joint and he's like yo like this could be stronger i'm like what like it has to say press 100 now like yeah you know if it said that it's like yo you're doing good you know what it's a great write-up you've got a breakout statement it says ready for chief and but it don't say press 100 now they are they looking so i think people just get it like crazier and crazier when it comes to like how they like it's hitting like it's like hidden messages and evils they think yeah it it says that you know i'm such and such MP, but it says recommended for first class. It don't say strongly recommended. That's why I deserve for ranked MPs and EPs. Yeah. It's crazy. I get it. I mean, but people look at the word potential. I know I put potential. I mean, like you're doing great things and you should do more, but that's not a freaking death sentence. If you get potential and you either, it's not potential. potential yeah i mean you screwed me no i didn't i asked the report you're doing great and you could do more yeah that was the thing back when i was in like oh wait it's like yo you don't want to have potential you want to do that shit yeah so i never put potential in none either yeah me either man you know that's probably why i didn't make it as a music artist man because i used to say potential there like y'all got potential you know maybe i shouldn't have said it there people pay potential because it's either paired with unfulfilled potential. It's like, oh, man. But also it could be maximized potential. It goes both ways. Yeah. Yeah. So now you were trying to get at the CDBs. Yeah. Fat Chief, I saw a real... Before you continue, hey, Fat Chief, this is your last shout-out on the pod. We love you, dog. But we just shouted you out last episode. Aaron gave you a Shout out for your episodes ago. For the listeners, we don't have a contract with Fat Chief. You know, the changes keep coming up. That's it. That's it. You know, this changes to somebody. Somebody on social media said. I just wanted to get that out of the way. All right. It sounded like a spell show. The McRib is gone. No more McRib for you. But the clip of the reel, whatever it was. He was like, hey, you know, sailor feedback was that a lot of leadership isn't, they're not doing CDBs and not taking them seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So somebody came up, Fat Chief, like, man, you go ahead and do your job. I'm like, that is his job. What do you mean? He's a career counselor recruiter, I think, career recruiter, but that's his job. A career counselor, right? That's his job. That's like his job squared. Like his job to the second power. He's like, I am. You know, so that just shows, to me, it just shows like social media cook. Like, you just got to be just negative, default negative cynical every time. Yeah. People, to my opinion, people, we do jack up CDBs. Yeah. We do. You know, I'll have a reschedule or I got to show up later. Like, no, get your ass in there and do the damn CDB legit. you know, um, so they got me thinking about what are some CDB do's and don'ts. I've seen videos where they had like a training video and he said, Hey, these are the best practice for a good CDB. What, what are some of your, your, your do's and don'ts for a CDB? Go first, bro. It's on me. Okay. Um, don't treat a CDB like a midterm counselor. Uh, like talk about, Hey, this is what you've done with where you want to go at. You should have these goals, but you meet these goals. Keep it goal-oriented, focus on the person, give the recommendation, think about the timeline. That's the first thing I'll say for a best practice. It is not a midterm counseling. It is a career development board, whether they're welcome on board or whether they're at 24 months, special, adenosine area, all that. That's my first name. Yeah, so my do. How many you got? That was it. Oh, first of all. So my do is this. Do flex. Like, so do flex. So do flex. Don't treat everyone like it's the same. It's different sellers, different CDBs every single time. But as you're going, like if you just see it, like I'm speaking from the point of the CMC, right? So you're the CMC, you chair certain ones. So you intro it, right? You do your intro. And then the way I've done them was I would intro it, introduce everybody, set the scene. And then I go last. I got a couple of I got a couple of points that I want to make At the CDB and when I do When I do the entering CDB like for the sellers that like They just joined in they just getting there When I do those CDBs It's certain things I do want to know If they know like if they know how to read the LES It's things like that that I want to make sure But then after that I'm Telling them what I'm going to say based off of The questionnaire they got and the conversation That's happening so by the time I get to me Besides the hits that I got to play Which is LES I also want to make sure they know I take the time out on the CDB to make sure they know Who the SEMEO is Who to report if you get sexually harassed Which is the SEMEO Sexually assaulted I do take the time to make sure they know who the CFS is I use that time In there to do that for those CDBs to check in once But then it's pretty much Tailored to whoever I'm talking to and what they said during the CDB. So it ain't the same cookie-cutter CDB. So that's mine, just don't be cookie-cutter. Yeah, and for me, talking from a CMC standpoint too, I try my best to not keep the same energy for all of them, but I do follow that question there, you know what I mean, to keep me on task, you know, so I won't get too out of whack or too whatever. but then I have my I kind of like that my NC1 goes through all this all the real heavy lifting when it comes to like the ladder and tell them about this and that and whatever I normally catch things that I have a lot especially like I have a lot of um a lot of, um, skin in the game on too. For example, why is that? I'm big on like giving them examples. Say, Oh, they want to go to school. I talk about, I jump in on a school thing. I jump in on the qualification they thinking about it. Whatever kind of goals they have, they want to buy a car, I jump in on certain topics to emphasize, too, on certain things, too. And one of the things, for example, they do at Lemoore is they have classes for buying a car. They got class for buying a house. Almost every CDB, you know, these young, these kids come in about buying a car and about what's going on. So I introduce them. Hey, talk to you, change the command. They got this over at the CDC. You don't even jump being on there, I say it ain't nothing more important than being knowledgeable on stuff when you're sitting in the room and they're talking about it, right? So, that was one of the things that I like talking about. But I love being on top of this, all this stuff we're talking about, I love CDVs. You know what I mean? I love talking to these young people about their goals and their life and what they're trying to do because people don't want to come in and fail, and we all know that, man. People don't want to come in and fail. They got goals, they want to do stuff, so I, man, I like them. I love them. I'm 50-50 on CDVs. because I don't like it when not I expect it but I don't like it when there's a good CDB and everyone pours into the person hey man like you said the carbine, the financial literacy spousal employment, resources all these things I don't like it when you sit there and the person who's at the CDB is kind of like don't go through the motions kind of like wasting time If that's the case, then it's our duty and responsibility and want to do it. But if that's the case, look, here's your smartphone and there's my Navy HR and you can go figure it out yourself. You don't waste people's time. Yeah. But some of the ones we do, bro, just respectfully, some of the ones we do is what like first attention sellers and shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like is what brand new sellers that don't know what the fuck is going on anyway. Right. So we got to tell them like, hey, look, this is what I find myself having to tell them like, hey, this is a career development board. This is about your career. You need something to write on and you need something to write with and you need to take notes. And that's why when I do the teller thing, a lot of times I write down like if like my NCC says like, hey, you could go to such and such for CFS. I write those questions. I've been on Damon on me as this kind of person. Anyway, I write this shit down there when it's my turn. I'd be like, hey, who did NCC talk to? And they like, it's like, yo, this shit is important. And that's kind of like, I do stuff like that a lot though, where I'll ask you something that somebody just told you, and then to let you see that you ain't been paying attention. You know what I mean? I do agree with you, but I also, we have to let people know what CDB, because the sellers we get to come to CDB, they don't even know what the fuck they are. They like, yeah, they said to come to this thing. Now remember I'm getting started straight out of boot camp You know at my command I don't know what the hell going on Alright so I gotta do better Here it is And it's not really a do better it's just a question And it's like hey this barracks money For the barracks passports and all that shit When is shit going to hit When is it like what are we Like what's the timeline on this barracks money y'all What's the question When is the barracks money going to hit Like when is when they going to start Funding for these barracks I think we need more now Just in the area that we at Naval District Question area The person assigned to that task force Is in that area And she responds to Emails and texts pretty well The person assigned to what task force? The barracks task force She didn't come on the pod She didn't get it on the pod I'll try, I'll text her to see if she'd come on All we want to know from her Is when the money going hit Like when the caterpillars When the caterpillars When the back-olds Going to be like digging up some ground Like when are the When they going to have The white tape and the ribbon cut-ins And when are the new Barracks going to be built bro Like right now no offense to nobody But the barracks Marcel is living in Man they been losing And hey Aaron's the same they've been going down on the code hey it feels like five degrees oh by the way it's no steam or heat today in the berries because the pipe fucking cracked you know what i mean like like like what are we doing hey tell your sellers to just kind of ride it out they ain't gonna have hot water today but you tell them ride it out we we having conversations about making sure they can shower when they get to work. Wow. Bring your toiletries to work, man. Because we know that water. Again, no offense to the people over there. The shit just, oh. It's time to get... Everybody that came into every new position that they came into talked a lot about... And we refrain from saying shit about people a lot. This ain't one of them topics. All y'all that came into all of my offices, and I'll say it, I don't care about how nobody else think or feel. All y'all that came into all of them offices The first thing all y'all was talking about Was barracks And making that shit better When? We done started changing the way we PT We changing the way we take people We done all that shit When them barracks people Gonna get that money I ain't trying to see no Instagram videos I'm trying to see action We need more barracks We authorizing sellers to get BAH now Because it ain't enough barracks for them to leave We need to modernize some shit, right? We need to put more into teaching the nutritious barracks, mill plants and shit, right? The barracks my cell is living in right now, it's a microwave. It ain't even a five-in-one. They got an oven down there for like 260 people or more. 400 people in the building. It's one oven. 400 people in the building. It's one oven. You know what I mean? Is the oven going to break? eventually it will if it's for 400 people bro like yes the oven goes down you know and i'm not even speaking just on behalf of like my own situation because i don't want nobody feeling like i'm putting nobody on black it's like that all over the place all over the place bro like come on even in a little more man i go i just went to the barracks actually um my chief them do the barracks do a little inspection i went over there with them you know i think yeah bro i go over there with them bro they got like fucking shit cut out the walls and shit and i'm talking like they just left it bro like it's like they got cutouts looking at pipes and shit it just up right second war went to the went to some barracks and ground saw some fucked up shit and tasked a bunch of people to fix shit and the shit got fixed and again like i said this might be speaking to like dc or something because it's probably money-based and i'm sure Admiral Gray and I'm trying to get the funding and all that and I'm sure Admiral Gray's probably lit up just hearing me say this too but when is that money going ahead? Let's go ahead and start getting these barracks fixed. They need to be fixed and we need more of them now. We need more. You know? That's some people if you can't house them. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of like my thoughts. My other little do-better is a little bit lighter. flank speed right so the flank speed the flank speed shit like you know it worked wonders you know what i mean like i remember going to commands bro and every command you gotta get a new email and you know we ain't like that i ain't like that having to get a new email every command but what i what i don't like even more is like you leave a command now that with these flank speed emails, I'm still on the distro, man. I'm on my old command distro forever. You know what I'm reaching out like, yo, take me off the distro. No, we did take you off. They just using the old distro. Yo, take me off the old distro too, man. I'm tired of receiving emails from you guys, man. I love you guys. I'm tired of knowing everything y'all got going on now, man. I've been gone for a little bit, man. You know? So, yeah, so flank speed, them flank speed emails, bro. You forever getting emails from your... And all I'm thinking about is like three commands later, I'm going to still be getting emails from Annapolis, man. Because it's late, man. I tell you, for me, same thing. But I like the emails that I'm getting. It's some of them that's crazy out there, but I was at Tycom. Right? I was at Tycom. So some of them emails me some good informational shit that's coming out. So I'd be like, yeah, I'm getting Tycom. Yeah, bro. I'm getting like, Bro, I'm getting like 30 emails a fucking week. 30, 40 emails come through. Some of them I delete automatically, but some of them I be like, okay, shit. Let me check this out. Let me check this one out, man. I'm getting like, no inspection. Hey, we got to move the zone inspection. Oh, no. Fuck your fucking game, too. Like, one day I'm going to pop up at one of them. It's just like, yo, y'all want to be here? Yeah, but Tycon ain't talking about. Tycon, they ain't doing no damn zone inspection shit. Most of the emails are legit. You send out to the big dog. Yeah, yeah. You all done with that, Aaron? What? Oh, I'm still getting stuff from PAX, but I'm on health.mil and I'm still getting blanks. That's a whole different debacle right there. Yeah, that's another thing. All them different email shits. Yeah. Because when I was on an installation, it was like that. Well, if you want to hit us, you got to hit us. You need a health.mil. like when you want an installation you gotta get whatever account from all your tenants but we only on Gmail I even got four different Gmail groups now man um yeah I gotta do better man my A my do better is a little light too Dumbo you know but my do better man is um my watch and my um and my treadmill bro you know what I mean I need them things to sync up bro bro hey look i'm going on this damn treadmill bro i'm running five miles and my wife's saying i'm running motherfucking three and a half bro i need to pay the sync up in a matter body because you know ella's my wife she's linked into my thing i want her to see them five miles bro you know i mean so when she looking at her watch she said he ain't doing three you know i did five bro you know what i'm saying so yeah i need that my do better is for that stuff the link up a little bit better bro it's something about the treadmill i think because so i only run on treadmills and on that sync with the watch right so so so my miles are counted but the difference is if i don't sync with the watch my calories are way different than if i do sync with the watch and to me that's weird you know and i don't i don't understand that like why does why I do the, so now that I sync with the watch, if I'm running five, I'm running five. If I'm running six, I'm running six. But if I don't sync with the, like, for example, if I don't sync with my watch and I start out at six miles per hour, I could burn 200 calories in 10 minutes, right? But if I'm sync with the watch, I'm only burning 140 calories in 10 minutes in accordance with the watch and the treadmill. And I don't understand the difference. Like, you should be going off whatever the treadmill's going off based off of the performance, right? But who knows? but hey dog what you just said bro i've been struggling with that for like ever since i had a watch i'm like yo these just don't sync up yeah so i well really and then another thing i'm trying to get at too is like hey peloton how much your people man you guys want me to test it out to see you guys you know me and see you guys can link up and and let me know man peloton i'm here for you man i got peloton bike i'm trying to get that peloton up so you got a peloton and don't you got a couple BMWs. You got a couple BMWs too, right? I'm saying. I'm saying. Don't you got a couple BMWs? No. How many BMWs you got? I got one BMW. You got one. And a color time. Yeah. And they have SUV, right? Yeah. What kind of SUV you got? My son, man, like, got the truck. I got him a little truck, man. you know it gets around a little bit no no i ain't giving you know i got it from yeah yeah his car broke down bro he had a love car man that thing so you got the bmw and you got the suv yeah but that's you that's my my my wife that's the weekend car so now no i have the little little s3 oh you got i bet had a little look because you know i had the Tahoe. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Bro, that Tahoe, man. I love that thing, bro. That was my... I probably never got rid of it. But, bro, that Temeckis trip. I had to do something, bro. I had to do something about it, man. But, yeah, what you got? You got to do better, Aaron? He trying to get off this man, Rich, man. He trying to... He trying to get off the... He's in school, pivot, man. I was trying to get the house, man. My do better is in line with The fitness We got the new PFA Instruction Back to two PRTs a year The do better is for us And everyone else in leadership Cut the shit They know the requirements here Let people If they stay supposed to PT during the working days I'm still working this with my people But do not put up Roadblocks or innuendo type pressure to stop people from doing the PT that's said to be done during the working hours. I don't like that. Stop trying to find ways around it. Somebody asked me, hey, much love to the person. Much love to you. Somebody was like, yo, if I get the step, the little desk step jaw, the little jaw you put under your desk, does that count as PT every day? That ain't really what Sagwar was getting at I think both ways man Do better both ways as us Everyone just cut Cut the shit get after it And even more importantly What you're eating and how you're sleeping But cut the shit Let's make it so that you should be like Shamed You're on fat Not saying if you had issues you need to help But it's just avoidable In more cases than not Let's cut your shit. Let's get after it. Yeah. My thing is this. Do it. Find a time during your work day to PT every day for your command. Do it that way and then report all the instead of just not doing it or acting like you got all these other things you're going to do. Like, no, everybody work on their own every day. Do it and then report all the hurdles that comes along with it. Get some data points. I see more people Finding ways around Doing it Because of all of the Because of all of the issues That come along with it Just do it and then pull the data points Of what you lose from doing it What you've been losing from doing it But if Secwar is saying that That's what we should be doing My opinion is fucking doing it Did you see the army is going to tie Some realist bonuses to PRT scores yeah that's crazy right there I think they should I think we should why cause man if something like I don't know if I could tie some on the oh man everybody can be out there what was this cut the shit like why I know you shouldn't beg someone to meet to meet or requirement of their damn job that helps but yeah I just I just, I just, like, can we talk a little bit about, this is spider right here in my room, I'm trying to kill that shit real quick, but can we talk a little bit about, like, is PT so important that we got to pay people bonuses? That's crazy, that's crazy, that's crazy. Not like other shit, not like war fighting shit, or not like how you fucking fix things. hold on because you can run a mile and a half faster than the rest of your command that you should get more money I get it that military members should be fit it's not a fucking we're not athletes why are we starting to get into this realm where we want people to be we're not weight we're not bodybuilders be fit enough to look at cops these motherfuckers Like, they not running six, seven miles. They running the bullshit that they got to run. No, they're not. What'd you say? No, they're not. I know. I'm sure they got some requests. They're like some cops who are busting out the frames. Yes, but they got a PT test. Like, be fit enough to do your job. Like, why are we, like, yes, we should be fit. And I think that's important. And I always say that that's important. But when we start talking about now, we giving people bonuses because how they perform on a PRT. What if they suck at that? What if they perform real good at the PRT because they like working out and they suck at the HT? They don't know how to mig well. They don't know how to tick well. They don't know how to do shit. I'm with you. I mean, there was the CMAS surgeon or the Space Force talked about what's actual fitness. He was like, fitness, doing your stuff in addition to the do all things, right? But, why can't there be something where you're like, if you excel, excel, and keep yourself from standing down yeah I get it 24 hours you know what I mean if you do something I get you something real simple I get you a couple hours off or you know what I mean you ain't gotta come back to work after that I'm with you I'm looking for no super athletes are you excel at being a GSM are you excel excel at being an OS are you excel at being like we're making the PT block of this shit like this is is it up or someone else what'd you say is it solely us doing this that's going from the top you know i can't bro i'm not wrong look it is but i can't i can't say i can't but yes i get it but like we can't we can't go to those places right but but what i'm saying in the whole auditorium with the top racks you know what i mean we're acting we're acting like that's like 60 percent of what it means to be a wholesaler. Like, it's way other... A whole service member. Yes, PT is important. It's important to be... I'm big with saying, you guys, that's the biggest, like... And we're saying we want to start giving people bonuses for passing fucking physical assessments. Nah, bro. If a person goes on FAP, is it like, oh, you're on FAP? It's like, man, you're on FAP, dude. What's the viewpoint of that? Are you saying like in real time right now What's the viewpoint of it? Yeah And once again I'm not talking about people Who are getting over injuries How do you want people Who want FEP to feel? Like how do you want them to feel bro? You want them to feel like shit bro? Take Nah Take ownership I'm not talking about You got people who just missed a gut If you got someone who didn't do anything Anything And you want FEP Yeah I want you to feel bad If you someone that has been Had challenges how bad you want them to feel I don't want them to slam their head in the car door nothing like that I'm just like yo man I gotta do better I want them to feel as if they failed in a way like they failed their damn advancement exam I mean you could if you keep failing right you could fucking get kicked out of the military so it's definitely detrimental you know man you know we need places to PT gyms are now 24 hours yeah You walk past The gym to your back room Yeah What are we talking about Hey you are 19 You're 19 You just left boot camp Why are this Why are you in my office For a bad day check Before it goes to the field Why Explain yourself Well they're in your office for a bad day check Because you require them to come to the office that they just like that yeah yeah yeah that's why they're in there because you hear them go yeah they in they head like man if i was anywhere else i wouldn't be in your office well man they would just get routed up and i would be running my p i'm not asked hey are you getting pressure is your working hours crazy and they'd be like no the pressure is coming from you right now Yes. Yes. So I agree. Like in that case, right? I agree with everything you just said. But I don't agree with the army or whoever it is. Like, it's like a glorified... And it might sound weird, but like we do way more than PT for you to start saying like, yo, we're going to give you money for how well you do on your... Some people got kids, man. I know how important it should be. To move our kids? Yeah. They could pass it. And I'm not even talking about people that's out of shape grossly. It's some people that's in shape that could pass a PRT, but they're not in that realm that they're about to get extra money. I don't know. And I'm interested with Damon. I just think we're adding a whole lot of sauce. I saw someone at my command. she that's her she had a kid and then she was freaking running a half like two weeks later yeah but every fucking every military member is not a marathon runner bro like some military members are like chefs they want to open up like a fucking restaurant when they get out the navy or something not everybody's like like janina simmons right not everybody I'm not fighting for everyone to be Some apex athlete I've said it before I'm not really talking about you Aaron I'm talking about the way that whoever is saying that We gonna give bonuses to the motherfucker that Like Sub has gotta be a rub because We've gotten so bad With it We went to one We were doing one PRT a year Coming off COVID And hey you know what Keep the standard And Cash jacked it up bro it's no like like go to any command that people are grossly out of standards right and tell me that the people that's in charge of holding these people accountable are doing it the best way that they can i'm not gonna even in my career we're the best we try we're not the best no place well you got a lot of people grossly out of standards because people like what do you mean you didn't do this what yeah so my example my example is the grossly out of standards shit right so you go you you go anywhere where it's people grossly out of standards and tell me that oh shit you just gave me something to write about a note in my command like shit hold on i gotta write this note man it's about my job hold on like they gotta do with that oh shit damn yeah so it's like any anywhere you go right it find a triad and a cfl that's putting that shit at the forefront and tell me that that command ain't flourishing when it come to pt standards if if that ain't the case it's another problem i think the reason why shit fails is because the people that's supposed to be driving it don't drive it correctly so i don't personally think like we always have to have the incentives like do your fucking job bro like you you're the cfl right get the nutrition people to the command make sure that the people on your fat are on that nutrition plan that they say to get on when you sign to page 13 for fucking going on fat right make sure that you're allotting time for people to work out get acfls that care about the shit you care about it don't treat it like a collateral oh and oh by the way triad get behind that shit like all you have to do as a triad member is fucking supporting like and that'd be the shit that'd be frustrating with me about like some triad shit like ain't nobody asking for you to do much support it go to the all hands and just talk about it i i you know i concur um and and i think that's how we solve like a lot of these problems when it come to sec war like and i'll say that sec war set what the standard was and i think everybody else is finding ways to check the standard box without checking the standard and i'm not saying everybody else i'm not saying every single person i i hate to do that when we do that and have these conversations but it's people that i've talked to that's finding ways to remix the standard to say they hit the standard and my answer to that question is always what i talked to damon about like two months ago is what if sec war was in your skipper's office could your skipper tell the sec war this like yeah well this is what we doing everybody gotta fucking watch right so if you go work out you know we figuring it out we doing in math we don't like could just skipper say that the second one second would be like yeah yeah y'all y'all hitting the mark that i asked for sounds good and it's probably not the case right so i love you aaron and i love whoever the fuck came up with the idea but i don't love the army deciding to think that and i know it's just a thought but thinking that yo we need to pay people for the fucking like PT like no that's not what a whole seller is man I mean a whole service member is a whole soldier is like it's way more to it you pay your expertise man cook this order this fix this sorry noise all that but yeah like do something to where it used to be a physical fitness and whatever standard on the eval you're a 5-0 what does that mean? it's hollow what does that mean? what does that mean? yeah yeah I mean that part right and motherfuckers be 5-0 and not in great shape like yeah you can't be a 5-0 if you ain't where you're supposed to be like in that block I know that block you can make equal opportunity ah you know no one can get equal opportunity to your senior wrong that shit what? that's an old career counselor you a departmental career counselor? yeah retain those Yeah, 5-0 We ran off in the other blocks on Valentine's Day, but yo, the equal opportunity shit like, should that be an eval? Like, should the equal opportunity block be an eval for an E1 through E4? What's the block saying? I ain't about to pull that shit up Like, cause it's this whole it's this whole politics shit for E1 through E4 anyway, if you ain't on a CR a T, you're automatically a 3-0 or some shit people be saying. Like, is the equal opportunity shit, like, necessary in 2026? I know where you're going. No, I'm not going there. That's an Aaron. Whoa. Did you find it? Nah, I'm not looking at each other. I mean, maybe we can come back. I'm interested in it. And I'm not saying like equal opportunity but does that should we be grading e1 through e4 on whatever's in that line item especially when we do the whole if you ain't gonna see our team and am i tripping i know in the block it talks about um greatly increasing uh recruitment retention efforts in that same block so you can go a career counselor i stood on that you can tell a career counselor that they're gonna be 3-0 in that block even though it has verbers that talks to exactly what they're doing? Have y'all ever heard or is this a sole experience for me because I'm trying to see how popular this experience is. Have y'all ever heard somebody say, hey, if you're not on CRT and you E4 and Junior or E5 and Junior or whatever like that, you can't get more than a 3-0 in equal opportunity. Have y'all ever heard that? Yeah, I received that and I'm like, hey, I'm wrong. Yeah, I never I'd be most definitely talk about the CRT theme, but I never like, you can't you know what I mean? Get my wife and I ain't never heard it like that. You're on the rules, man. The can't part, but yeah, I haven't heard it before though. I'm going to go pick it a week. I love that. I love that. That fucking workout conversation and that shit was great. I'm going to go pick it a week. My pick of the week is the it's from the Fleet CPO training team newsletter. And hey, for the listeners, just so y'all know, it's not a book because I'm still listening to it. I'm still, I've not got about three hours of it a day, bro. It's an audio book and it was 44 hours long. I'm on month two of this shit and I can't wait to review it. Hint is one of the best books I've ever listened to, right? I mean, I think that's pretty easy, but I'm still, I got like six hours left for this book and I can't wait to give y'all the full review. But that's the reason why. But my pick of the week today is from, like I said, the Fleet CPO Trainer Team newsletter. And it's a block in here. And I don't necessarily know who wrote this block, but I want to shout out the training team. And that's Command Master Chief Julio Hernandez, Command Master Chief Missy Ferguson, and Command Master Chief Tiffany Simpson. So I'm assuming one of them wrote this block, but I'm going to read some of this, right? It's called Minute. And the block I'm talking about is the Minute Motivator block. And it says, worry is a word that I don't allow myself to use. And that was from a general of the U.S. Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower, right? A couple of things stood out for me, so I'm going to go in it. It says, worry is a costly down payment on a cheap possibility. legitimate concern is appropriate. Worry is unproductive and produces inaction. It reduces courage to fear and vision to short-sightedness. It is a negative force in a world of possibilities that has kept untold numbers of people from achieving what they know deep inside they can accomplish. You can't prevent bad things from happening to your good intentions, But you can refuse to let their possibilities become a weight on your shoulders. Worry doesn't have a life of its own. You have to birth it and nurture it. It then becomes your frenemy for life if you allow it. Worry always prompts the what if questions. This throws you off center and causes you to lose focus. You begin to look for solutions to problems that haven't seen the light of day and will likely never happen. And once you begin asking the endless what if questions, your next thoughts may start with I can't because. Once you have determined a right direction, stay the course. It doesn't hurt to have a backup plan, but don't reach for it too soon. Give your original plan a chance to develop. Think positively and act courageously. Fear doesn't need to be a barrier in your path to success. Military leaders focus on executing their missions without spending valuable hours worrying about every possible obstacle to its completion. If you've planned the best, delegated the best, and mobilized the best resources, expect the best result. that's good shit harsh so that was it that's my pick of the week I like it Domo just real quick that was the February 2026 edition of the Fleet CPO training team newsletter if you don't get that reach out to somebody so you can get it yeah my pick of the week man is you know I stay on Netflix. I stay on Prime, you know, video or whatever. So, hey, I got a show, you know, I need you guys to check out, man. It's called Department Q, man. You know, I'm big on the detective shows and things like that. So if you haven't watched it, check it out on Netflix, man. It's a pretty good show by a detective. You know, they put him in the basement to do cold cases and he got one. He got a good case, man. And he's doing his thing. And it's a good show, man. If you don't have anything, you can watch everything on Netflix or watch everything on Prime. And having watched this one, check it out. It's pretty good. Sounds good. Well, I got a TED Talk that I'm revisiting. It does make me reread a book. It's a TED Talk about Willful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan. Heffernan is spelled H-E-F-F-E-R-N-A-N. Just put in TED Talk, Willful Blindness Heffernan. I think it's relevance right now where people, it kind of goes into why we'll get the facts, but sometimes let our emotions cloud accepting what's in plain sight. So I'm reading this book for audio. I'm going to do both audio and read it. But that TED Talk, I think, is worth a listen. Thanks, man. Thanks, Damon. Yeah, man. Happy Valentine's Day, bro. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day to everybody And again It's a couple days after Valentine's Day At this point but hey let's have fun Let's have a great day y'all peace out It's a sippy stand up