Transcript

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I mean, even after I retired, it was like.

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I needed. I had the need to be wanted. You know, in life, you don't realize how quick. Like, after you retire. That it turns off. You know, you want to be that go to man. I was, I was, I go to man. You know, for so many things, for so many years. You know, I enjoyed it. My mind in and of itself.

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From the stress, though, the stress started getting to me. I mean, I remember being at the house and being on a computer for hours. You know, send my kid to bed, eat dinner with my wife. Then after she goes to bed, go back out into my shed where I have an entire office set up. You know, and I would just continue to work.

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And that was all so that I could keep up with the next day's events. You know, I remember talking to my boss. You know, this had to be probably like February timeframe this year in this shed where you're living, this is North Carolina. This is North Carolina. Yeah. Keep going. Yeah. So I remember talking to my boss in, like, May of this year and tell him I, I had a list.

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You know, I started making a word document of everything that I had going on. And I'm like, you know, you want me to meet with you entities in Fort Bragg. You want me to meet with other government agencies? Washington, D.C.? You want me to hold the line with the CIA? You want me to, you know, continue work and make sure that everybody's trained.

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And, like, we started going down the list. And it was, like, 220 task hours. I said, I said, sir, hey, we got 220, you know, task hours in the my office alone. I got three guys working for me at the regiment. You know, there's another 78 hours and I can keep up with 90% of that stuff.

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But, man, I'm like, I'm dwindling down. You know, I was going down my stress level was high. Plus, I just had a new kid, you know, I mean, Remington's only two years old. So, yeah, it was it was fun. I loved it. Yeah. And I was good at it. It's like an addiction, right? Where? It's just that.

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That treadmill. You're just go, go, go. You know, I think that's that's the hardest thing. And then when that goes away, it's like. It's like we're, you know, we were just talking about me, you know, and my phone break and just how crazy it is that you suddenly feel like you're naked. Oh, yeah. But that, you know, that's where I was going with that was the need to feel want.

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And so it was like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom boom. And then one day it shut off. Instantly. My phone stopped ringing. You know, and that was like, whoa. Kind of took me back for a second. Because it was almost instant. And then I wasn't the go to guy. You know what I mean? Now, life was it was already kind of on my own terms.

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I'm a driver. Like you cannot slow me down. I want to be the best at everything. I will try to do everything. That's one of my downfalls, right? Is I also test people out. But it's like I want to ask them with the things that I know needs to be at 100% to get across the finish line, and I'll take that on my shoulders myself.

Justin McMillen (00:03:04):

You know, and so for all of a sudden, for it to just end, and now I'm sitting in my house and I'm like twiddling my thumbs and I'm like, shit, what am I going to do today? Yeah. You know. Yeah. It was Yeah, it was interesting. Well, let's, let's. Because this is a great start. Sure. Let's let's back up a little bit.

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Yeah. Who the hell are you? What are you what's what is what is this tasking and what are you doing? And how did you get to that point? So how about you give me, like, a one minute kind of overview, sure. Of your of your background, your career? Yeah, I guess super interesting. You're a rare bird, and I'm really excited to be talking.

Dan Parks (00:03:39):

So why don't you share with the audience who you are? Sure. I guess, first thing that we need to cover is I'm a marine, right? And I've been a marine for 21 years. So, like parents, if you got the kids in the car, this is not the podcast for you right now. I can't fucking guarantee that. I'm not going to slip a few times, you know?

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So there's your, you know, your 10-second spiel of, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to control my mouth in here, but I'll do my damnedest. Let's see. You know what I mean? A little parental advisory. There it is. Yeah, man. So my name is Dan Parks. I am from a little area called the Arklatex.

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If you're from the South, you know exactly where that is. It's the kind of the border regions of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. I was born in Arkansas, spent most of my time in Texas up until about the eighth, ninth grade, and then moved to Louisiana during my high school years. After high school. And it was it was great.

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I had a great childhood. You live in a little town in Louisiana or high school? Shreveport-Bossier. Shreveport-Bossier, which is where Barksdale air force base. Okay. Yeah. Don't let me forget about that, because September 11th, 2001 was crazy, you know, with being beside the Air Force base. But yeah, so Bossier City, Louisiana's where Barksdale Air Force Base is.

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I consider Louisiana is kind of my home. Like, if somebody says where I'm from typically goes back to Louisiana, other than I've lived in North Carolina for almost 20 years. Just Louisiana, I feel like is where I did a lot of growing up. You know, I left Texas at around the eighth grade, so I'm on my 10th, 11th, and 12th grade year was in Louisiana.

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Like, that's where you transition from, like, boyhood to manhood. You know, things start getting serious. You know, September 11th happened when I was in my 10th grade, you know, class in economics. And, yeah, there was a lot of growing up, and there's a lot of growing up quickly. And, you know, I wanted to be a marine my entire life.

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Like, literally. I think there's still videos of me running around at, like, five and six years old. Right? I was like, you know, what are you going to do when you grow up? I'm going to go to the military. I want to be a marine, you know? You knew you want to be a marine, but before you even knew what the other branches were.

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Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Don't let me get off track on. Okay, those Marine Corps, but. Well, so my dad, my dad, my dad, took in someone when I was super young. His name was Franco. Hey, Franco. You know, he's my. I consider my brother. He's red hair, just like I am. You know, he's still around. Even to this day.

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My family stays in touch with him. But, back in the day, my dad used to manage, few Kentucky Fried Chicken stores. And Franco was a kid that was working with my dad. And I just remember, I remember even being back at, like, had be like, five, four years old, you know, we were working in the shop and Franco would come to visit, and I would get so excited.

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You know, Franco's in town. And so I've considered Franco, my brother the entire time. Well, Franco was a marine, okay? He's a marine, and he was a marine since I can remember. You know, I, I don't even know when Franco came in. I just knew he was a marine, you know, from my youngest years. I remember him being a DI in, like, he was selling that shit, you know, like, dude, you you want to be the best, you got to go to the Marine Corps.

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But you know, simultaneously, I'm watching, you know, Rambo. Rambo comes that. So I was born in, what, 1985? Rambo came out not too long after that. But when I was a kid is like my one of my dad's favorite movies. Like First Blood one, First Blood II. Oh, how about the Arabs? That dude, you had me in the mud and he takes a knife out and just.

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Yes. Yeah, you had me from hell. You know what I mean? I was like, I want to be that guy. I want to be that guy. And so growing up, Colonel comes to see you. Yes. Like this is break in fucking rock. Yeah. Or like, he figured, you know Murdock. Yeah, Murdock. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do you know what I mean?

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Like you pissed off the wrong dude. Like, I want to be that guy, you know what I mean? And so. So my entire life, I wanted to be a marine, and I wanted to be Rambo. And now, if you understand the military, those are two completely different things, right? One is a Green Beret and one is a marine.

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So I grew up my entire life wanting to be Rambo, but also wanting to go to the Marine Corps. It wasn't even till I was in the Marine Corps that I realized I couldn't be Rambo, right? You know what I mean? It was like this huge joke from Franco from the very beginning. You know, I was like, God dang it.

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You know, I was like, this whole time I wanted to be Rambo, but I also wanted to be a marine. I didn't understand the difference at the time, you know? But it ended. It ended okay. You know, so. Yeah. So that brings me to the military. You know, I'm one of those started at, you know, 5 to 6 years old.

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I was telling my family that I wanted to be a marine. Franco is running around. He's hooting and hollering like, dude, you got to go to the Marine Corps. And I'm like, hell yeah, I got to serve my country. And so, like, I my entire childhood, you know, there's pictures, videos that me and Franco stayed super tight. So as soon as I turned 17 and I could sign my own legal document.

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Now, mind you, this is two years after September 11th. Like we're getting ready to go to Iraq. I remember approaching my parents with the paperwork. I had met a guy named Sergeant V, he was a local recruiter, and I was like, man, this is going to be the easiest. This is the easiest time you're ever going to have as a recruiter.

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Are you ready for it? Like, sign me up. 0311 I don't want to be anything else but 0311 grunt girl. You know, he's like, he's like, let your ass fab scores, you know? So good. Like, are you sure you just want to be an infantry man? And I'm like, I'm a positive. I want to be an infantryman, you know what I mean?

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So you got a Franco? Yeah. I'm thinking I just want to be push ups and Rambo. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. And so, So, Sergeant, he he gins up the paperwork right now. I haven't even hardly approached my parents. My dad knew I wanted to. I was getting ready to go into the Marine Corps. He knew it was inevitable.

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My mom knew. But she's like, well, you know, maybe he'll give some time after high school. And, you know, I'd really I don't want to lose my baby, you know? So like, that's a that was a reality at that point too. That was. Yeah. Anybody that was going in was going to be being shipped out. And so yeah, I mean we knew it, you know what I mean.

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And it wasn't even I want to lose my baby like that, you know, like there's always that potential. But it was more like she wasn't ready for me to leave the house, you know. Sure. So I remember calling my parents, and I just turned 17, you know, and then it was like a week later, I met with Sergeant V, and I was like, dude, you got to sign me up for infantry.

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He joins up the paperwork and I call my parents. I'm like, hey, are both is everybody going to be there for dinner tonight? And my mom's like, yeah, I think so, honey. I was like, okay, I'm going to bring the recruiter over. We got to sign some paperwork and it's not necessarily the best way to go about this, you know what I mean?

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But I just remember my mom, you know, she's sobbing at the table. My dad's like, you knew he was going to do this, you know, because at 17, you can enter the. What's the program called? Where you go to boot camp and come back. You know, it's essentially you're going into the Marine Corps, right? You swear, and you go to maps and you do all the things, but you're still completing your high school, right?

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The DEP that program DEP don't ask me what the stands for. I don't remember, but I remember it was at that program. And, basically you're you start working out with the recruiters and everything, getting ready to go to Marine Corps boot camp. Your medical, clearance is all taken care of. You've already sworn in and committed your four years to the government, and, like, you're finishing high school and you still get out of it.

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You know, it's frowned upon, obviously. Were you thinking at the time when you went in that this was a lifelong thing for you now? Well, I mean, I knew I wanted to be Rambo and I knew I wanted to be a marine. Right. And so, yeah, I guess I was going and thinking, this is going to be a lifelong thing until I went to boot camp, right?

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And I'm like, well, fuck this. This is a four years only, like, we're getting the heck out of here, you know, which is which is also funny in itself, because the night that I was supposed to leave for boot camp, me and my buddy were held up in a hotel. And I remember having this conversation and he's like, dude, I'm.

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I'm going back home. We're going back home. And I was like, all right, I'll let's go home. Then all of a sudden we're start walking down the street. You know, he's like, well, I told my dad I was going in the Marine Corps. I got to go back to the hotel. And I was like, what? Wait, we got to let.

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I got invited to the pipeline at 18 years old, you know what I mean? I could have been a welder out there making good money, and I'm like, you already got me thinking that we're going back home. He's like, I'm going back to the hotel. I was like, damn, that's my best friend's name was Taylor Morgan. I can't leave him, you know what I mean?

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It would both turn around and go back to the hotel. It was in boot camp the next morning. How about those moments in life where you don't realize that that one decision changed everything, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. It's crazy. And I did my four years and you're like, you know, I had my first tour in Iraq.

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Yeah, that was 2005. And then my second tour was in 2007, first tour. We went to Iraq for nine months. Second tour went to Afghanistan for a six month rotation. Which kind of jump started my career. And then, you know, you're sitting there in 2004, 2007, I'm getting ready. I can either go to Afghanistan or I can not go to Afghanistan.

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And I'm like, well, I mean, thought about what I'm going to do on the outside, you know what I mean? Like this Marine Corps thing, it pays pretty good. It gives me a bed to sleep in, a roof over my head. They give me everything I need. They going to cover my college, or I could leave, which I would have got all those things anyway.

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But, you know, it's like, what am I going to do on the outside? I decided I wanted to be a grunt, you know? And so I was like, let's just re up and you're up. And then eight years is in and you're like, well, I've already done eight. I'm almost halfway there. So. So then you re-enlist again.

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You know, you got a 2000. I don't even remember. But is 12 years. And you're like, well, now I'm over halfway. I got to reenlist again. You're 16 and 20 and so on and so forth. So I guess I'm just kind of went like that. I'd say it was probably about eight years in when I had decided like so total, total time in the military, 20 years.

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Total time, 20 years, ten months and some days. Wow. Yeah. So good career, hindsight. Pretty much the entire global war on terror that whole stretch. Yeah. So you seen. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I've seen all of it. Like I remember the day that September 11th happened, you know, is, you know, you, I was in the economics class.

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I was at Parkway High School and at the time, you know, the economics teacher actually pulled us in and was like, hey, there's something that's happened, and we're not exactly sure what it is, you know? But a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center plane number one, you know, and I remember we went to the library while everybody was talking about how the plane, you know, it must have been, you know, the last guy system or whatever it was and crashed into the World Trade Center.

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And this is a huge deal because it's the World Trade Center. You know, nobody had any idea that we were under attack, I remember. Yeah. And then like, I'm watching on the news and boom, the second plane hits. And now everybody's like questioning like, whoa, what in the heck is going on? They came up and they showed bin laden and like, oh, you're into real life.

Justin McMillen (00:14:59):

Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was in Mexico, I was working in Mexico. And I got this woman, but I didn't have a TV. And I had this woman banging on my door screaming. And I don't speak Spanish. I speak Spanish, but not super well, she's saying something about our country's under attack, Legion. You're out of the country and you have no access to really anything.

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So I'm trying to run around trying to find a TV so I can see what the hell's going on. Wow. Yeah, and I ended up getting in front of TV by the time the second plane hit, hit. And it was like, you're not leaving Mexico. We're looking down the borders. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know what was going to happen.

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Yeah, that was crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. And you saw you seen the. You ever seen the diagram of like, all the planes that were up, you know, in the sky and then how fast on September 11th. Definitely YouTube. But it's worth your time is how fast. On September 11th, after the second plane crash, they grounded all flights really.

Dan Parks (00:15:53):

And like, within 30 minutes, every single aircraft that was in the United States was on the ground. It was like incredibly fast. Wow. Yeah. Check that out. Yeah, totally. For me, as a Parkway High School. So Parkway High School is here. Barksdale Air Force Base is here. Now, you're talking about the largest base. It's second largest base for B-52 bombers and the largest base for the A-10.

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Right. And then I'm sure there was some fighter jets and stuff that were with that were scattered in. But when when it happened and they finally announced like, no, we're under attack. And that's when they started being like bin Laden's picture up on the screen and everything. Well, once they once they upgraded the threat level on the base.

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I remember that like it was yesterday. I was in my ROTC uniform because I was in ROTC in high school. Right. And I just remember these Humvees pulling up from base with 50 caliber machine guns. And they're like setting up a perimeter around the school. And we're like, what the heck is going on? And then the next thing you know, it's like, yeah, it's like Red Dawn.

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Yes. Yeah. And not if we're kids, you know? And we're like, oh man, what the heck is going on? And why? It's because we were in an ROTC uniform, and we were so close to the Barksdale Air Force Base, they were afraid that the base was going to get bombed, and they didn't want the school to be mistaken for military compound.

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Sure. So super interesting. Well, as this is happening, then they dump the base. They want every aircraft in the air right? Because you don't take a chance on the aircraft being on the ground like it's bomb. And so the sonic booms of these aircraft start, you know, it's like boom, boom, boom. It's like an hour. And, you know, I'm sitting here thinking, I just remember thinking like, dude, they are straight bomb in the Air Force base.

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You know, nobody nobody knew what was going on at the time, you know, and it's true, if you've ever heard a sonic boom like it's extremely loud, you know, and it's just right in our backyard. So I just remember boom, boom, boom, you know, an unsettling feeling of like, dang, you know, that's what I think seeing the World Trade Center on TV, you know, and the second plane that pissed me off, you know what I mean?

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Once we figured it was an attack. But, like, what made it so real for me was when they started doing those sonic booms on Barksdale and Tank and like, dude, they are dropping bombs right here in my backyard, you know? And I just remember like that second, like, you know, going back to the story of I had him sign paperwork 2017, I was like, no, right now, now's the time.

Justin McMillen (00:18:24):

I want to go to the Marine Corps, you know? Yeah. There's a huge calling from there, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's there's so many, so many people jumped into the military at that point. Yeah, the country really came together, too. There was a period where, remember, that you would be in the store and you'd look at somebody and there would be like the nod, oh yeah.

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Oh yeah. It's like we're all here together. Yeah. And you had. Amen. Don't even get me started on, you know, America and all this infighting. You know, I remember we were having that too, was like, you know, Americans just fighting against each other like we're. I don't know if it's because we're bored or, you know, obviously there's certain people that aren't happy with certain things, but like, for something to happen as big as September 11th, you know, how fast it brought the whole country together.

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Now, that's an interesting topic, right? Is like nobody cared whether you were left, whether you're right, conservative, liberal didn't. Politics went out the window, right. Everybody wanted to get some, and we were talking about this yesterday. Yeah. Book. Yeah. Tribe and. Yep. Tribe is a book. Sebastian Junger wrote it. He did a bunch of things.

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Restrepo. Sure. I think it made a perfect storm, but he wrote a book called tribe, and. Yeah, we were talking about this. Yeah. The whole. You know, there's something about human beings where if you have an existential threat that we naturally come together. Yes. You know, and I think there's a there's an evolutionary reason for that, you know.

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Oh, yeah. Yeah. It goes down to our I think it goes down to like the, the beginning of time. It's in our DNA, you know, and I mean, it's like, I don't know, drop a grenade in this room right now and we're all going to run. But then we're going to where are we going to do. We're not running away from each other.

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Right. Like we're going to. Are you okay. Are you okay. And then you know the local population does the same thing right. It's like they all band together because they realize they're stronger as a tribe, you know, like it's a matter of survival. And so the book talks a lot about that, you know, it's like, going back to the tribe and how important the tribe is.

Dan Parks (00:20:37):

And you know that without the tribe, you know, you're you're like that lone survivor. Eventually you can't survive anymore. You're you're kind of you're kind of stuck out on your own. Yeah. And, yeah, the book does a good job of, like, going through these multiple examples. You know, Bosnia, September 11th, you're a World War two, all great, very great examples of, you know, how we bonded together, you know, and we, we when we're talking about it might be coming up, you know what I mean?

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Like, if you think in like, American history, here we are. I've never seen like this, you know, in the United States. I watch CNN and I get one thing. I watch Fox News, I get another thing like, you know what I mean? I watch ABC, I get another thing. It's just all this infighting inside the United States. Well, you know, World War two, the 40s, 60s, Vietnam 90s was Desert Storm.

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Then what, 2001 wasn't good enough for Desert Storm, so we had to kick something else off, you know, 2003. And then we've been in fighting for 20 years my entire career, which is crazy. To think that, like, my entire career was about war fighting, which is amazing to me. You know, it's awesome. Like, we're gonna. I'm that.

Justin McMillen (00:21:53):

Yeah, that. But then, you know, here we are 20 years later is like, what's the next big thing? What's the next big thing? And how do we band together as a tribe? Do you think the reason that the country is becoming so tribal and like small tribes, that because you think it's because people are looking for that and that they want that.

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And so because we don't have a common enemy, we're just going to we're just choosing to fight with each other. What do you think about that? A sense of belonging to something greater than themselves, a purpose, like, I'm, I'm I'm, you know, this tribe. Tribe Republican or tribe Democrat. Sure. Yeah. And like, tribe, you know, tribe, whatever I think about, like, you know, getting out of the military and, you know, I talked about how the phone got turned off.

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You know, I was by myself for a while. How important it was for me to surround myself with friends, you know, so that I had that tribe with me because, I mean, I'm sure we'll get into it, but, like, there was a time when I first retired, things got tough. Really tough, you know, and, like, the need for me to to work towards a higher purpose, you know, before it was, you know, fighting wars.

Dan Parks (00:23:07):

Now it was nothing, you know. Nothing. Yeah. And take your uniform off and you lose your purpose, right? You lose your sense of purpose. Like, what am I going to do now? Not that I'm super charismatic and, I go getter, and I'm. I'll get back out there on my feet, you know what I mean? But there was, like, that sudden loss and, like, without a tribe of some sort, you know, things would have got super dark for me.

Justin McMillen (00:23:31):

Yeah, well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Damn. One of the. There's many reasons that I do this podcast, but one of the reasons is because I think that guys like yourself, men like yourselves that have been through so much, your stories and who you are and how you learn to relate to all of this, can help lots of people out there.

(00:23:51):

Sure. And I think we're in a time right now in our history where there's a bunch of people coming out of the military that have long stretches of lots of war fighting, like you said. Yeah. And they're trying to find their way in the country as a whole sort of needs to heal. And that there's there's a large group of people that I have to assimilate.

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There's a ton that we have to learn that the average citizen, you know, living in La La Land needs to learn from folks like you. Yeah. And and that's really a big part of why I wanted to have this conversation with you. Sure. So I, you know, I love what you said about Rambo because I was obsessed. I mean, obsessed when I was a kid, man.

Dan Parks (00:24:31):

Like the knife. The whole deal. Like what? Expendable. I mean, you know, when he's on that boat with that, like, little Vietnamese girl? I think that was Rambo. Yeah, yeah. You gave him the necklace? Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. There's, like, forearms with all the veins. Oh, yeah. You know. Yeah, it's a badass. Yeah. But, yeah, I totally get it.

Justin McMillen (00:24:54):

Yeah. September 11th, you went in the military. You said you went to, Iraq in 2005. Do you remember what it was like the first time that you realized that you weren't just in the military, but you were going to be fighting war? Oh, man. You know, we we actually haven't talked a lot about this, you know, but I kind of went in with a different mindset.

Dan Parks (00:25:16):

Now, mind you. Mind you, I'm from the South. I've hunted my entire life. I hunt to put food on the table. You know, so killing anything was kind of, you know, how I was raised. I, I remember going in 2005 and like it was time to get some, you know, there was a lot of there was a lot of things that were different, then, you know, this, you know, the recent past, right?

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The rules were way different. You know, we had just recently invaded Iraq. All of my senior members were all from the push through Fallujah. You know, I missed that by just a couple months, which I wish I wouldn't have. But, dude, I was I was a war fighter back then. Like, all I wanted to do was get my peace.

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You know, our rules were a little bit different back then. They were loose compared to, what they were, you know, a decade later, really loose, you know, in that I think that's because we saw, we still thought that we were in like this, you know, we were in a battle, you know, against various terrorist networks in the inside of Iraq.

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But we were fighting like we were we were still at war, you know, like in some of that had ended. It took a long time for us to realize, like, we need to dial this back a little bit, you know? But I remember wanting to get out, right. And get some. It's interesting that, you know, there was a break shortly after September 11th.

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There was something called the authorization to Use military force was passed, you know, by this. Yes. 50 something words. Oh, yeah. Just this. I think everybody but one person voted yes for it. Yeah. And it it basically gave wide sweeping power to our administration to go anywhere and do anything that we felt was necessary to fight against anyone that we thought was a threat to the United States.

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Yeah. Which was I mean, you're just talking about Roe. Yes. I think, you know, rules of engagement – ROE – for sure. And I think that was the starting point. And then it was like you had this culture of people were fucking pissed, and now we're all going to go do our thing. And what I think is interesting, and I asked somebody else about this as well, and this is a good bridge.

(00:27:26):

And when I say bridge, I mean civilians listening to this to try to understand the men like yourself. How do you go from being a civilian, like, yeah, you know, that, being told your whole life it's illegal to kill. Yeah. And then how did the Marine Corps set you up to be comfortable with the idea of killing the enemy?

(00:27:45):

Yeah. I mean, well, I guess it kind of starts with boot camp, doesn't it? You know, the Marine Corps. Everybody's a rifleman. I mean, if you believe that, you know, I would say that everybody in the Marine Corps is a rifleman to some degree, right? There's like there's a there's a caveat, right there, you know, like there is some targets you got to hit while you're in the Marine Corps boot camp.

(00:28:06):

But I guess it kind of starts right there, doesn't it is like we qualified the 500 on a human target so that when you're 500m away, you know, that's kind of the beginning stages of, you know, getting you used to shooting at something that looks like a human, you know, for anybody that hasn't killed anything. And then, you know, the hate, the hate, it eat you alive.

(00:28:30):

You know, the hate of you know, the attack from September 11th and all the people they killed and then all your brothers, you know, you're fighting for your brothers that are to your left and to your right. You're fighting for your country. Yes, but like going back to the tribe, right? You're fighting for that dude that's on your left in your right too.

(00:28:47):

Right? Because you love him and you care about him. And then you see things happen to them, you know, explosions, IEDs, mortars, gunshot wounds, some. Not everybody gets to come home, you know? And my first one of those was one of them, you know, in our company alone or in my battalion 18 were lost during that deployment. And you're fed by hate, you know, you're fed by hate.

(00:29:13):

And for me, I don't know why. Like for me, it was it was a it was a smooth transition from I am now having to hunt, you know, to put food on my table to now I'm hunting for my country or I'm hunting for my brother to my left and right, you know, I will not let my brothers die.

(00:29:32):

Sure. And in doing so, to me, I can justify because it's either you or me. It's him or us. You know what I mean? And it's like a lot of guys have trouble with this. I'm curious about that. Like, does that did you experience that with other Marines? Like guys with. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you'd see this classic picture of the Marlboro Man after they did the push through Fallujah.

(00:29:57):

You know, Fallujah was rough. We'd see Marines like that all the time, you know, some some couldn't handle it. I think.

(00:30:06):

We talked about it later. The more experience I got, the more I realized, you know, I was already doing it. But like the warrior mindset, you have to go into battle with a warrior mindset, knowing that you're about to face combat against another human being and if you don't kill them, they're going to kill you. Right? And if you can put it in your head to it's either them or us.

(00:30:33):

It's either my brothers safety or they're the winners. Right? You know, like cliche, right? What is Rambo say? Killings as easy as breathing, you know, like, I don't even know. I just thought of that, like, as far as, like, cruising, you know? But, you know, I just it never affected me in a in a manner that put me in a situation where I was like, oh, man, you know, you come back and you hear all these PTSD stories for me and it doesn't exist.

(00:31:05):

I think it exists in other ways and exists and stress it exists. And, you know, later in my career of late, right, was depression, anxiety. But, you know, I don't wake up in the middle of the night in sweats and thinking about, you know, that time that we got in a gunfight. Right? I just I don't, you know, I have woke up multiple times and I'm fighting the pillow next to me, you know, the wife, the wife knows, you know.

(00:31:32):

Well, my ex-wife is you start fighting the pillow, you just roll over and let it happen. You know, you don't want to get in the way of that. And some of that was kind of scary, you know? But I've for me, like, PTSD in the, like, shellshock, gunfights. And, I don't know, maybe I feed off of it.

(00:31:52):

Maybe. Maybe I'm the person that's wrong, you know what I mean? But I think, like, going in there and a Warriors mindset of it's either them or us. Is, you know, that that's the determining factor of whether or not you're going to have issues when you get back in. And another thing is morals. You know, the rules were loose in Iraq.

(00:32:13):

And a lot of these individuals that come back, especially from that era, you know, 2000, 3 to 2000, and let's say we were probably still the Wild West all the way up through 2009, you know, is like their moral compass. You know, they broke their moral code. And if you break your moral code, that's when you see issues coming back, you know, because you have gone against something you were taught your entire life.

Justin McMillen (00:32:40):

Is is breaking the moral code. It just breaks a person down. I've seen a lot of that. What do you mean? You explain that more? Yeah, I mean, you know, you get in a gunfight, right? There's always collateral damage. There's always collateral damage, you know? And I guess for me, it's, you know, fight to kill the enemy, make sure you're shooting the right people, you know, and making sure, you know, the targets that we're going after are the right targets.

(00:33:10):

You know, not having mass casualties and limiting collateral damage to the best because, you know, the local populace that they know, right? They know. But it's, you know, the organization and terrorist organizations that are there that are forcing them. Remember, United States, we're going to leave at some point, you know, and so like that pushes a lot of people to side or at least, assist, you know, those different terrorist organizations at the time, but they're not part of it, you know, and their stories, you'll hear of, you know, mass casualties, in the middle of a gunfight, you know, lots of collateral damage.

(00:33:52):

Do you think the guy that has the where they messed with their moral compass? Do you think it's it's that there's just too much collateral damage and it's all accidental? Or do you think it's that somebody gets caught up in it and starts intentionally killing people? They shouldn't be killing? I think I think both, you know, seeing collateral damage and, you know, kids, women.

(00:34:14):

That was tough for me. That was tough for me because they get in the middle of it and there's just there's really nothing you could do, you know? But the guys that I don't know, they get their jollies off by getting in these gunfights and the gunfights is about, you know, us and them, us and them.

(00:34:31):

But then all of a sudden, it turns from, it's not us and them anymore, you know, now they want to get in these gunfights. They're seeking out the gunfights. You know, you're like, you're just you're just damaging yourself. Yeah. And it took a long time. It was it was, you know, 2007 is when I switched units. But, you know, 2007, like, you see what's happening.

(00:34:53):

You're like, am I targeting the right people? You know, have we been targeting the right people? These kids that are going over there, do they even understand the targeting cycle? And are they making sure like the people that they're killing are, you know, the bad guys, you know, because if it's not, that's where their moral compass gets it gets broken.

Dan Parks (00:35:12):

You know what I mean? It gets broken and it's based off of misinformation. You know, I think I think the United States made a lot of enemies in the Iraq war, too. A lot of enemies. There was a lot of kids that weren't ready to go over to Iraq. They didn't understand, you know, the politics in terms of what got us over there around what was the who.

(00:35:32):

Was it just the weapons of mass destruction, allegedly, or chemical weapons? I don't want to speculate. I mean, I kind of, I, I understood wonder why the hell are we right Iraq when we know the bad guys in Afghanistan? I'll be honest about it. No. When I look back now, I do, you know what I mean? But then absolutely not.

(00:35:54):

We're going to get something. We're going to take it to the enemy because of September 11th, right? Why? Because we were told to do so. You know, we have no idea why we're going after Saddam Hussein at the time. Absolutely none would. You know, I guarantee when I was back in 19 years old, I thought to myself, well, he must have been part of it, you know, like, we're going to go we're going to we're going to take the fight to Iraq because, you know, they attack the United States and nothing to do with it.

(00:36:20):

Right? You know, we can talk conspiracy speculation, right. Like, I think I think, I think there's a lot of things that I think is around that as far as Iraq minerals. Right. You know, I think that's the biggest one everybody knows is the amount of oil that was in Iraq at the time. No big contracts, right?

(00:36:42):

Yeah, big contracts for private. Right. And if you remember, like U.N. was going in over to Iraq, they were trying to find whether or not they were making nuclear or getting close to, nuclear bombs or weaponizing, you know, uranium or chemical weapons. Right? Chemical weapons. Right. And there was a lot of talk about that. I remember back in 2003, like you're looking for these caches or not, I wasn't in 2003.

(00:37:08):

I was 2005. Sorry. But, you know, looking for caches. I remember having a gas mask on my hip, you know, and, you know, if we didn't know what the substance was, you had to put your gas mask on. You know, we're all mop level. So the mop is the essentially, it's a chemical suit that you put on with your gas mask supposed to prevent you from getting, getting any attack from chemical weapons because we didn't know that there's a lot of mustard gas back then and stuff like that.

(00:37:36):

But I remember, you know, if I was a bet, you know, Saddam Hussein's at that time was really pushing for, nuclear weapons. And, you know, I remember talks of genocide and stuff that he was doing to his own people. Yeah. Which is all bad, you know, it's all bad for the United States, I assume. You know, that's probably.

(00:38:00):

That's probably the main reason why we went into Iraq. You know, I've gotten into lots of debates with people about this, and it's like, is it this is it that I think at the end of the day and it's it's more of a common narrative now, but it's really about American supremacy. It's like it's about oil. It's like, okay, maybe it is, but maybe it's just about us having a stronghold in the Middle East because we need one, right?

(00:38:22):

You know, because this is part of us maintaining our authority in the world and that it's necessary for us to. There's that story out there, too. Yeah. And it's like maybe, maybe oil. Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe this is all part of the whole. It's a bigger picture. I think you could really make you you can make yourself go crazy, right?

(00:38:39):

It's almost like a game of risk. You know, we do need strongholds in the Middle East. I mean, there was. That's why pull out Afghanistan was so pretentious. We gave up Bagram. You know, if you look at from a strategic side of the house, staying in Afghanistan made a heck of a lot of sense. We get a heck of a lot closer to, you know, potential threats in the future by maintaining that the air base.

Justin McMillen (00:39:03):

Let's go back to Iraq, though, really quick. So. Sure. Do you remember you had you ever been out of the country before that never. Okay. Yeah. Never. No. The Marine Corps was good. It's so funny. I was looking at my Google Maps, calendar or my not calendar, my Google Maps app, you know, and I was like, you know, I star a lot of places when I go and visit things.

Dan Parks (00:39:23):

And if you look at if you zoom out on the world, there's there's stars all over the place, you know, that I've put, you know, like locations that I visited. But if you look at the United States, it goes like North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, you know, it's just the South. Like there's so much of the United States after.

(00:39:44):

Now that I'm retired, I can't wait to explore. I never left the United States. We going back to your question. Like, you know, traveling was we'd go on camping trips. You know, which I loved going on with my dad, you know, but we didn't really leave our our small little area very often, you know, going and seeing Galveston and seeing the ocean, the first time, that was cool, you know, or Montgomery.

(00:40:06):

And we got to see the submarine, you know, when you when you got to Iraq where you just was your mind just melting or were you excited? You remember? Oh, man, I was scared. Yeah. Yeah. I think everybody probably was right. Yeah. Everybody is scared when they first get there. I mean, is talking about it or was it everyone keeping it to themselves?

(00:40:23):

Oh, now you talk about it. You have to. I mean, I rack up so many stories, man. This, like, I just remember, live in, land in Iraq, and you used to have to take the convoy, and we were going to Camp Fallujah. Big, big base right outside Fallujah. And, we're riding in this seven ton, you know, and at the time, we call them up armor seven tons.

(00:40:47):

This is like back in the day, like we were putting quarter inch steel on the side of these, you know, troop carriers and thinking I was actually going to do some of them for an IED. And, you know, I just remember, like, the first time I ever was in that seven ton, you know, how much destruction I mean, cars, cars on fire, tanks, personnel, troop carriers, all, like, scattered on the side of the road, you know what I mean?

(00:41:13):

Like, if you see an ID, you got to call it out. I'm like, dude, I don't even know what an IED is. I don't even know what I'm looking for. You know, like, man, I'm going to get blown up, you know? And I think that was a fear for everybody. It was a bunch of it's a bunch of 18 year old kids, you know, all going to, you know, fight for the country.

(00:41:29):

We have no idea what we were getting into. And really, what we had to go off of was the guys that just got out of Fallujah, you know, on the previous rotation. And, you know, there's some stories about Fallujah. You know, they were in gunfights every single day. Yeah. And so you just expect that the psyche land, you better be ready to get in a gunfight.

Justin McMillen (00:41:46):

You know, I remember being scared. I think anybody would be scared in that situation. And if they say they weren't there. Yeah. For sure. Was there a switch that flipped? Do you remember when you went from being scared to, like, okay, I have to do a job here or do you have do you have a moment where you were there and it was like you suddenly clicked and you were like, okay, I got to shoot at people now.

(00:42:07):

Yep. Yeah, yeah. I think anytime you get in your first firefight, you know, your first firefight, I it's crazy. In Iraq, I've got videos, you know, propaganda videos. You can get them offline. Whatever. I've got propaganda videos of our side, you know, as because we're kids, right? We're like, oh, let's pop the camera out. You know, we're getting in a gunfight or whatever.

Dan Parks (00:42:27):

And then you see from the other side of the them attacking us like it gets really real really quick, you know. But I'd say the what flip the switch was the first time we got banged by an IED. You know, driving down the road and all the noise of that explosion hitting our Humvee. And we ran up armored Humvee.

(00:42:47):

Thank God everybody was safe in this particular one. But, yeah, I remember, like, the first time ID went off is like, dude, this is real, you know? And I remember, like, that switch that flipped, it was, you can't be scared anymore. You got to resort back to your training. And I think the Marine Corps had done a really good job at that point in time of like, repetition, repetition, repetition.

(00:43:10):

So when you hit the fight or flight mode, you're down the fight, you know, and I remember that that switch flipping and just being like they said, get the heck out of the vehicle and set up a cordon, you know, and like everybody's getting out of the vehicle and setting up this cordon in case we're going to get in a gun attack, which we never did on that particular time.

(00:43:27):

But that was like what flipped the switch. The first time I got hit by an idea is like, man, this is real. This is real. Like, you can die over here. You know? Yeah, yeah. And, and it continued like that on my deployment, you know, I mean, you were out there nine months. Nine months? Yeah, I talked about, you know, we lost 18 in the battalion.

(00:43:50):

I wish I would have brought you a picture. You know, it would have been good for the podcast, you know, but there's, you know, I remember the probably one of the biggest IEDs I had seen was it was, anti-tank mine hit one of our hands, and it literally folded the Humvee in half. The wheels are touching, right through the metal.

(00:44:11):

Came right through the middle. And, you know, there's only one marine survived that particular IED. And we lost four in that area in that explosion. Yeah, we were we were there. And I just remember, you know. The blood and the gore, you know, it was shocking. It was shocking, to see to see another brother.

(00:44:39):

You know, like, he was there. And now he's not, you know, like it was it was a shock. And that continued on our deployment, you know, I, I got another video of it was me and my buddy. We always were the machine gunners. You know, we used to play what's called Russian roulette in the turret. You know, we were we were moving inside on there was like only a couple routes in and a couple routes out.

(00:45:04):

And every single time we were going in the xenon, we would get banked, you know, and so we would draw straws to get into the turret. Who's going to be in the turret that day? You like this is crazy. Like think about that for a second. Like we had grown so accustomed to death at that point. Like we were literally drawing straws.

Justin McMillen (00:45:24):

And, you know, there's this old I mean, there's a four megapixel camera back then, you know, video of, you know, oh, Johnson. Hey, Johnson, what are we doing right now? He's like, we're going to draw straws. What are we drawing straws for? We're drawing straws. Who's going to be in the turret today. You know how crazy is that?

(00:45:42):

Think about it. We were drawing straws of who's going to get hit, you know, and we would get hit all the time, you know, it just became second nature, you know? And then from there, it's like every single person you see probably starts to look like there's a thread that's a thread that's a through. Yes and yes.

Dan Parks (00:46:01):

So I suppose that first nine months really rearranged your entire mind. Sure. Yeah. But you got used to it. You know, I also remember at the end of that nine months, me and my buddy Taylor Morgan, we didn't want to go home. We were like, well, we'll just cross deck and we'll be a combat replacement for another battalion that's coming in, you know?

(00:46:19):

And then the first sergeant was like, nah, boys, we're going home on this one. You know, they wouldn't let us stay for for obvious reasons. We were sucked into it, you know, that same first sergeant. So, our karma is a location where we eventually will move from Zeta on to karma. And there was this one road called the lollipop.

(00:46:41):

We had to pass it up. It's the only way into our karma, into our three little fobs. And, there was an IED there that would hit pretty religiously. You know, it wasn't until we started sticking snipers on it at nighttime or maybe maintaining a patrol, area in that particular area that, you know, kind of slowed down the IEDs.

(00:47:02):

But, this first sergeant. So typically they would stay in Camp Fallujah and we would stay at our forward operating base for all those listening, and, you know, Marines, they're all about their haircuts. You know, they're all about their haircuts. I just remember this asshole, you know, like, we've been patrolling, we get banged. I haven't had a shower in 30 days, man.

(00:47:26):

I used to take my jammies off and, like, we would prop it against the wall because the sweat had dried and they were so stiff, you know, and, like, here comes this asshole. It comes out to our farm, and he's carrying handheld shears, right? He's carrying handheld shears. Not even damn electric shears. You know what I mean? We couldn't even get electric shears.

(00:47:46):

It was handheld shears. So you had to be like, you know, cutting, cutting each other's hair, which was terrible, you know, in this farm. And we hated when the first start would come, you know, we hated it. You know, he'd go on our patrols and, like, everybody's got to be buttoned up. Absolutely perfect, you know? And, then we hated having to get haircuts in the middle of nowhere.

(00:48:08):

But I'll be damned if he didn't save our life. So we had been in that for probably about a month. At that point in time, mortar attacks were super prevalent in the area. I tons of times I was sitting on the rooftop and, and, you know, on post and watching post in the middle of the night and you'd hear the boom, like, boom.

(00:48:26):

Now mortars incoming. You know, everybody get down! Incoming! Boom boom boom. You know, the mortars weren't necessarily on target all the time. Well, I remember the asshole, the first star, you know, the same person that brought his clippers. Well, one of our second fobs, that was probably about two, three miles down the road. They all of a sudden came under attack.

(00:48:48):

And so we were the chef, the quick reaction force. And we're in our bunks. It's the middle of the night. You know, we get up and we're like, oh man, they're under attack. Where the chef everybody needs to load up in the Humvees right now in this first sergeant. Imagine your brothers are in the middle of a gunfight in this first hour.

(00:49:03):

You know, we just threw our vests on, our helmet on. We're like, out the door, ready to get in the Humvees. We're in the Humvee, loaded up in this Humvee. Right. And we're, like, ready to get some. And his first sergeant comes back and he's like, no, no, everybody needs to get out of the Humvee. Put your kameez on right now.

(00:49:18):

Everybody needs to have their kameez on. And we're like, first sergeant. Like, who gives a damn about the kameez man who gives a damn? Like, we're under attack right now. So we're like, we go back in, we're stomping inside our farm and we're like trying to put our kameez on. And all of a sudden, boom, dude, a mortar landed in the back of the Humvee that I was just sitting in.

(00:49:40):

Yes, I got pictures of it like it imploded, exploded this Humvee outward like devastating. We would all been dead. And so there you go. Every every marine hates to hear about, you know, having to get a haircut. And there's your story of a first sergeant that wanted you to have your haircuts in your uniform. Absolutely perfect. And it actually did save my life.

(00:50:01):

You know, that's so that's freaking nuts. Did he say anything afterwards? Now we all hugged you, man. I'm like, did I get a fucking haircut anytime you want, you know what I mean? Like, he saved our life by making us get our cameras. You know? And, we never really questioned it again. Yeah, I just said there's there's nuts.

Justin McMillen (00:50:22):

Nuts stories like that, you know? Sure. So, yeah, I enjoyed Iraq, I enjoyed Iraq, I the amount of cash that we found in Iraq was incredible. The kind of what kind of stuff did you find? Oh, man. RPGs. We would find it every time you're like, this is not going to land on someone's head, right? And I said, yeah, that's the idea.

Dan Parks (00:50:45):

Yeah. I think we would go on this huge cash visa walk with metal detectors. Another thing like I just look back and the technology that I was involved in before I got out and the technology of what we were doing back then and the tactics, the tactic techniques, tactics and procedures, walking in front of Humvees, you know, with metal detectors, looking for bombs like you had the PFC because he's the junior man on the totem pole, like, oh, there's a little there's a little blip inside the concrete, or there's a blip inside the dirt, like you're the one that's got to take the shovel and dig, you know, the hole.

(00:51:22):

But we walk with these metal detectors, and then after this is back inside on, you know, we got we started getting smarter on going down the same routes, on a regular basis. And we use it. So we call them long range patrols. Right? We'd go out for 30, 45 days and stay out there in the bush so that we didn't have to keep going back on this.

(00:51:41):

These roads smart, you know, and, caches were super prevalent and probably the largest one that I've, I've seen in years. You've seen them online, right? These big caches are full of RPGs, mortars sometimes you got discus, machine guns, you know, one, five, five rounds that they're going to use for IEDs, explosives, like a lot of stuff.

(00:52:04):

The idea is you find the cache and that's this taken weapons away that they can fight against this, you know, because that's what they do. It's almost like guerrilla warfare, right? Yeah, they would have they would have. Right. They come into Iraq because let's face it, we weren't just fighting, you know, Iraqis. We were fighting Syrians. We are fighting Iranians.

(00:52:23):

We were fighting. It was it was just a chessboard, you know, that's where the game was being played at the time. But these were a lot of foreign fighters that were coming in. Well, you're smart, you know, they would hide these caches in different locations. They would come in on a visa. You know, as if they're nobody, and then they go get their gear, you know, once again, country.

(00:52:42):

And that's what they were attacking on. Oh man, it was nuts. And it took us a long time as kids to kind of figure that out. But yeah, we I remember going on this like 12 klick patrol and just dragging this stupid metal detector and like all the sudden, like, dings in the middle of the desert and, you know, right near one of these palm trees and you're like, oh, man, let's start digging.

(00:53:01):

And we kept digging and we kept digging. They had buried, like an entire ISU 40ft container under the ground, and it was stuffed, and you would have never even known it, you know, then that stuff was prevalent all throughout Iraq. I mean, they would find vehicles, they'd find tanks, like, yeah, nuts, pineapple grenades. Right? I don't even know the last time pineapple grenade was used, what, World War two?

(00:53:23):

Like they had all this stuff, you know, like gold to Saddam's gold. Man. You know, I was not the person that got to go in Saddam's palace and get these grand stories of gold DNA. Yeah. Best toilet seats. Yeah. It's nuts. The masked compound marine special Operations command, I'm sure we'll get there is, you know, the it has a gold arc that was pulled out from Iraq, during that time.

(00:53:49):

And it's in case, you know, it's encased, on the on the compound. That's about the closest I got to seeing any gold weapons, you know, from that era. This man is great. So. Okay, so you you were you got back nine months later. Then what happened? What was the next big move in terms of. Yeah. So, we got back from Iraq and there was a thing called a security between so used to back in the day, Second Force Recon would have infantry units basically be their outer cordon as they went and did a direct action hit or a raid.

(00:54:26):

So we would set up an outer cordon. They would go in and, you know, get into the gunfight in the buildings and clear the buildings and stuff out. And I just remember like, oh man, we're going to we're going to go be with Second Force Recon. Like, this is my shot. I'm going to be Rambo, you know? And, so we had to take a little knock or whatever.

(00:54:42):

And so I became part of the security platoon, that was attached to Second Force Recon. So now we're like 2006. We did a work up from 2006, like 2007. So I got to spend some time a year with these guys, you know, during a workup and like, watch them grow and this is, this is back for, you know, second Force Recon at the time you're talking about, you know, there was master sergeants and gunnery sergeants inside the squads in the platoon.

(00:55:10):

So, you know, this isn't like the new Force Recon, where, you know, a sergeant can be a platoon sergeant. These were some very, very senior operators that had been through the thick of it from the very beginning. And, I remember what year was 2000, 2006, 2000. And this is like 2006, 2007 was the was the Raiders or any Mars SoC was out a conversation at this point.

Justin McMillen (00:55:31):

It was starting to you know it was starting to air and you're you're in North Carolina or where were you at now? You wouldn't know we were in North Carolina. Yeah. So I'm so because of this, I'm one of the very few that actually got to spend an entire career in North Carolina, except for the three years that, I requested to go to Germany.

Dan Parks (00:55:50):

So we're in North Carolina, second Force Reconnaissance Battalion. They're looking for a security opportunity, and they're getting ramped up for, Afghanistan. MARSOC. Rumsfeld at the time was it was just now getting to where, like they were going to they were tasking the Marine Corps, like you will become where you will stand up a SOF organization and support us.

(00:56:10):

Okay. Just like every other service, you know, Army, SF, Navy Seals, the Air Force PJs, they were all provided entities. And then, you know, there's it's it's bigger than that. But that's like your main component commands. The Marine Corps wasn't providing anything at the time. Because, you know, we were we were special. We had Second Force reconnaissance, and it was internal to the Marine Corps.

(00:56:34):

And it was so powerful because, you know, those would be your first boots on the ground to support the MAG staff. So now you're talking about big gray hole navy, you know, second Force Recon goes and does the shaping and sets, you know, the battle space for the mutual ends. And then conventional forces, Marines and like that made us lethal as a as a marine Corps.

(00:56:54):

And so because we had that and we provided that, you know, the conventional forces at the time, Marine Corps didn't really want to get involved and USO. So, you know, they didn't like the thought of having another daddy, you know, like where the Marines and Marines on your chest should be good enough, you know, type mentality.

(00:57:14):

And so second Force Reconnaissance Battalion eventually became MARSOC. I got to see the second Force recon flag drop in the MARSOC flag stand up, which was pretty cool. You were there, I was there. Wow. Right there. Saw the flag drop. So plain color of, you know, MARSOC. And, but I was still a security baby for people who don't know.

(00:57:34):

What does that mean? Plank holder. So I was one of the first members of MARSOC when it first stood up. So from the ground up, I guess you could say I helped build MARSOC from the ground up. You know, as a part of that, and not a lot of people can say that. So we got to think about what that means.

(00:57:53):

And I don't think I've ever actually, like, you know, I have a I have a stop. Yeah, I don't I just just keep going forward. You know what? I'm with you. Yeah. I'm kind of learning how to do that after the retired life because I am a go getter and it's always been like, next and next. I think the average population, people listening to this, everybody knows the seals and I mean seals, it's like every TV show and all that.

(00:58:20):

And it's the same as, like if I was talking to one of the founders of the Seal teams. Yeah, I'm talking one of the founders of Mars. Dude, you're talking to one of the founders of Mars cycling. Like, I don't know, I guess I really haven't thought about it that much until you really bring it up, but, like.

(00:58:33):

Yeah, I mean, blank older and a founder of Mars Rock is a big deal, you know? Yeah. Because as I was a part of the beginning of something great, you know, I guess, of arguably the greatest, the greatest part of our military. Yeah. Well, it absolutely is to all USF and Navy Seal guys out there, you know?

(00:58:55):

So, yeah. So at the time, what was what was, you know, you got. Yeah. The Seals have their thing. Green Berets were going in and training, you know, forces force multiplier, that whole deal. You got your PJs jumping out of airplanes and attaching other units and the whole deal. Oh, man. MARSOC, you're going to get into the gold and hang.

(00:59:15):

You know, I still say we're still trying to find it. And, you know, we found our niche when MARSOC first stood up. I don't think Ma Sock really knew where it fit into, so. Com and I don't think the so. Com really knew where MARSOC fit in either. You know, I think they had an idea.

(00:59:33):

I think that they wanted the full power of the MEU, at their disposal if needed. I think that they wanted MARSOC to kind of be the tie end of the MEU. Similar to what Second Force Recon was. Well, there was no reason to do that. You know, that's why we have second force. Because, you know, Force Recon went away for a little while and then it stood back up.

(00:59:58):

You know, those are the ship riders that typically stick with the MEU. And so MARSOC was kind of trying to cut its own. People didn't know what some MEU, marine expert and marine expeditionary unit. Right. So all your big Navy ships thing it's not aircraft carrier like LHD, it's troop carriers that typically have Marines on board.

(01:00:19):

Very, very powerful. You know, so anytime you're like, hey, we have, you know, the U.S. Navy's in the Mediterranean or U.S. Navy, right? They're typically talking about, you know, the MEU on rotation. But second Force Recon is typically attached to the MEU. MARSOC, when we first stood up. So cam didn't necessarily want that. No, they wanted they want to contribute to the global war on terror.

(01:00:45):

You know, the GI there was the fight. And, you know, back then it was it was targeting, targeting, targeting, targeting, targeting, targeting. When you say targeting, you're talking about specifically finding people of value. That's right. Assets missing, high value targets, and assets. Yeah. High value targets. And then go and execute missions. You'd kill capture.

(01:01:12):

They had have been thinking about it though, because they've got to figure out a training protocol. Right. Well, remember, we were all doing so. So comm was in this rotation. The Navy Seals and Navy Seals being maritime, you know, Army XF, typically guerrilla warfare mask was like this new player of like where do we fit in? Well we do maritime and we can do some ground stuff, you know.

(01:01:32):

So MARSOC went through some growing pains at the time where where we've settled now is Littoral Region. So, so com is settling back, you know, to its original roots with its regions, littoral regions. So anything from, you know, water up to land, you know, so it the beach. Right. It's a little regions, the riverine, locations and stuff like that.

(01:01:55):

Navy Seals were always designed to, you know, be offshore. They own the ocean, you know, and they're like, they were the go to for, vehicle borne search and seizure, you know, explosives on gray hulls, like Navy is always focus on the offshore portion. You know, the Army USSf was always focused on, you know, behind enemy lines, standing up a guerrilla force, you know, a group of humans that were willing to, you know, fight for a cause, that was like army specialty.

(01:02:33):

And then, you know, the got kind of kicked off and it was like everybody's now focused on the G-1, like, find, fix, finishhed going after terrorist organizations, find an HV TS, and we got in the cycle Navy was it Navy Seals were into it. You know, direct action targeting, direct action targeting Army ISF, direct action targeting. We did this for like over a decade.

(01:02:54):

You know, I mean when you when you when the flag went up and everything started, how many guys were there and how many Marines were part of that original crew? I think, this is on the junior. Yeah. So so you can read about it in books? Fox company was the first. It was the first company that stood up.

(01:03:17):

They were in rotation for Afghanistan next. So you're talking about an entire headquarters. So 150, 200, you know, Marines plus two, two companies. You had you know, Fox Company, which back then was called the Desert Dunes or like direct Action. And then you had the security opportun, which was us. But, you know, you had basically Fox Company stood up with two platoons underneath it.

(01:03:42):

I mean, it could have been more than 400 as our selection. I mean, how did you end up? So yeah, that's cool. So then, you know, the selection period for the security platoon, I was like, I we all call ourselves security babies. I used to hate that name when I was young, you know? I mean, I'll you're just security, baby.

Justin McMillen (01:04:02):

Yeah. You know, but that's like, what drove me to want to be something else, you know, is like, selection. Back then, it was, you know, run three miles, you need to swim 500m under 13 minutes, if I remember correctly. Like, basically, can you run, can you maintain cardio? Can you shoot and can you, can you swim? Then?

Dan Parks (01:04:21):

Great. Not a lot of grunts could do it, you know what I mean? So like, they would take an entire I was easy company coming back from Iraq. Everybody had the opportunity to try out if they wanted to. Only a few were selected to stand up. The first platoon that was going to go with the first mask or rotation, which was super cool.

(01:04:40):

But we were the security babies. It wasn't until after my rotation, you know, getting to spend the time. That's where I was going with like, the senior members that understood the targeting cycle and how professional they were. You know, they didn't have time for, we call it in the Marine Corps grab ass, you know, constant joking around, doing immature like they were very focused, very mature individuals, individuals that I highly looked up to.

(01:05:05):

And I remember coming back from Afghanistan, like, I don't know what I need to do to become one of them. You know, I don't know what I needed to do to become one of them, but I know I want to be one of them. You know, I remember talking to, a great friend of mine. He was a mentor when we first first started.

(01:05:22):

And I was like, you know how I would really like to figure out how to get into, you know, Force Recon, you know? And at the time, we didn't really understand the difference at that point. How do I get a part of that? That's opportune. He was like, well, you know, you can go down the you go down the recon route, we'll get you in the right platoon.

(01:05:42):

So it's a platoon that they stand up before you go to BRC. And back then there was Rs. So these are the it's the advanced school for all reconnaissance Marines to go to. So I remember spending a ton of time in the platoon getting ready in the pipeline would have been, you know, go to rep, stick it out there, pass the, pass the school and then become a reconnaissance marine.

(01:06:06):

And then out of the recon marine, you would be assessed and selected to go and see if you could be a part of the like the dash opportune. So remember, there used to be a recon and a force recon force recon being the highest. And, so I went to rebel to. There's a guy name, Sergeant Major Tom.

(01:06:23):

He's a great, great sergeant major. I laugh, I just remember Sergeant Major Tom. He's. I was trying to sneak in from rip using, you know, some of the guys that I had just got off the dash or between and, they were they were going to get me from rip and go straight into the reconnaissance school. BRC and I remember saw major Tom and he's like, Dan, I know you were trying to get one by.

(01:06:45):

And this is like the day I'm ready to leave for BRC, right? Like, I have my I have my vest all put together with, you know, canteens and double 550 cord. You know, everything's tied down perfectly like I'd been in rent for, like, a month and a half, or some of these guys have been there for, like, a year.

(01:07:04):

So, I'm here, I'm pulling in and he's like, Dan, there's a lot of people that's been in rep a lot longer than you. I know you're trying to get one over on me, and I don't blame you, but you're not going to BRC today, you know? And I'm like, well, shit, you know, like, well then what's the deal?

(01:07:19):

He's like, there's two ways you can become, you know, what was now mask. And one was you could stick it out and go to the recon, the recon route and work your way up through that side, or, you know, mask had just stood up. So assessment selection was just now getting underway in the first ITC class, which is the individual training course, to become a mask operator.

(01:07:41):

The first one was standing up or you could go to pipeline. And I was like, well, that's an easy decision. I'm not going to continue sitting around here running with snorkels and wearing face masks on every day, you know, like send me to the pipeline. And, so I did. Yeah, I jumped straight in. This was, 2007 after we got back from Afghanistan.

(01:08:03):

So like June time frame and spent a year. And what was the precursor for ITC class one? Which school go back to the plane holder thing? Like, I watched this all form, you know, I was a part of it. And, two part of class one, that's the class one was after. So they had, so com was under so everything and so calm, you know, you met a friend of mine named Chris.

(01:08:28):

He was a Navy Seal, you know, and so calm. Everybody can basically cross-pollinate like me and Chris. We would have no issues going and clearing a house, stacking on a door, and having each other's back, because there's a standard from. So. Com everything's certified by so com. So I could be with an SF guy. I could be with a Navy Seal.

(01:08:46):

They could be with a mask with June. It wasn't it wouldn't matter or mask team. It wasn't. It wouldn't matter because we all understand the same tactics and techniques. So where was I going with that? There you go. That's what happens when you get blown up when you've been shooting. Nice one. And you said before that yes, you were like, yes, class zero.

(01:09:09):

Yeah. So like class 0.5 I guess you will. It was a certification for from. So come to stand up. I took class one, so I took class one was the immediate class that followed. I end up graduating in August of 2008. So proud. I remember like, fuck yeah, I made it, you know, like I made it, you know?

(01:09:28):

Now I'm a mask operator, you know, even though you didn't know what the hell that meant. Yeah, yeah, nobody really did. Yeah. Nobody. Really? Yeah. Nobody really did. Well, yeah. I mean, you got to see the Navy Seals and you got to see the Army stuff like we were. We were getting an understanding. By the time I'm now getting into, like, my 23 year range, got a little bit smarter, a little bit wiser.

(01:09:48):

You know, I've said some time in the Marine Corps, I understand. So come after our last mission, and, Yeah, I was just so frickin pumped. You know, 2008 happened. Like, now I'm in the mask operator. I'm exactly. I'm the Rambo, the Marine Corps, you know. Sure. Yeah. No. Yeah. I was just super proud that day.

(01:10:09):

And that started a lifetime of, you know, service for USO. Com and for the Marine Corps. But where'd you hit? Where'd you head after that? Next was so 2009. So I graduated in 2008. We started to work up Afghanistan. War was still kick. And, I ended up going to Pakistan, which was. Which was cool because you kind of got to see the other side of things.

(01:10:34):

We trained with their military, for some time. Was there any thought that bin laden was there? Nah, not at the time, you know. Not at the time. One of the bases that we trained at, though, was a mile and a half down from Abbottabad, where they found bin laden. So, like, if you think about that, I was there for the first rotation was five months.

(01:10:57):

The second rotation, I was there for right at 12, 13 months. So a whole year he was he was sitting in our back yard the entire time, you know. But, you know, we were also kind of, we weren't able to see, you know, the, the big picture at the time, like we were kind of contained on compound.

(01:11:18):

We'd get trained in military and we'd work with the military, which was really cool, and we'd send these guys out that we were training, you know, out for targets on, you know, the border Afghanistan or the Peshawar Valley, because this is what Afghanistan and Pakistan, you know, we view it as two countries. And sure, I guess on paper it's two countries.

(01:11:38):

But these tribes, they don't want during their wandering, they don't they don't identify the border. You know what I mean? They don't say, oh, well, if you cross Torkham gate, I guess I'm in Pakistan, you know, like they're crossing in the mountains. It didn't matter. So what they would do is, you know, they would be in the mountain, mountain regions, they'd come attack us and then, you know, terrorists by day and then walk over to their families.

(01:12:00):

In Pakistan, nobody was touching them by night, you know, their family, people, you know. And so, like, that's when we, you know, America really wanted Pakistan to kind of get involved on, the Afghan war. And so I guess our contribution was going and helping train their military forces to some degree. In turn, you know, they would fight on the other side of the border.

(01:12:24):

That's interesting. Wouldn't that typically be an Army thing like the Green Berets doing that? I think it's a soft mission all the way around. Oh, okay. Yeah. At that point, yeah. So calm is like, everybody's doing that. It's all about turning, like, local troops into assets for the. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, it's it's all about, you know, getting getting military forces that we need, right.

(01:12:49):

You know, we were training the Afghans, right? We wanted we would ideally would have loved to turn Afghanistan over. And, you know, the Afghan military forces be able to hold, you know, Afghanistan, stand up, a presidency, and so on and so forth. Well, we saw what happened on that. You know, same thing for anywhere is, you know, those who are our allies in that, you know, want to assist.

(01:13:12):

We try to help where we can, you know, which was super fulfilling. But I mean, the Seals do it. The Army does it. Was it difficult to to train them? Do they know what they're doing or. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people, you know, this was a I mean taxing military is, is pretty good, you know, if you like, think of it.

(01:13:29):

And amongst other foreign countries, you know, that are what would be considered first world like it was cool. You know, they they knew exactly what they were doing and they were easy to train. And when you say train them, was it just what what kind of things are you training? Weapons, tactics? Snipe. You know what I was training a man was primarily, sniper.

(01:13:50):

Sniper. Which was cool because, you know, we we basically stood up there. Sniper school for them, at the time. And these guys, man, they were rocking it. But, you know, they would go on rotation just like we would go on rotations. I remember, you know, they would go on rotation. They come back and they would like show us all the pictures and tell us all the stories, like those guys were getting after it on the eastern side of the border.

(01:14:13):

You know, like how fulfilling is that? You know, that was pretty cool. That was a pretty cool mission. These are my boys. Yeah. Hey, guys, train these guys when they come home, and they're. They're showing you what they did. Yeah, right. Well done. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. And, so like that second rotation after 14 months, I was home for three weeks.

(01:14:32):

And then they had, bin laden in Abbottabad, right outside a compound that we were training at. So I didn't where we obviously Pakistan knew we were there. Yeah. That's crazy. So then, what was that place like? How much different is it than Afghanistan? I mean, I know you said that, doesn't really exist, but that's like, again, people don't know a lot of.

(01:14:56):

There's sure. So there's no no. So when you think of Afghanistan, there's sort of different terrains. Pakistan is more than mountains. Yes. Well, the western side of Pakistan is so all eastern Afghanistan. I mean, you have the Hindu Kush up there. You know, these are some big, big mountains. They I have beautiful pictures of Afghanistan. Afghanistan's beautiful. It's really it's really beautiful.

(01:15:19):

But, you know, the way they their housing is different. You know, we we are very privileged here in the United States. It's. I guess the best way to put it. You know, they Afghanistan is not nearly as developed as Pakistan. Pakistan, you know, has developed locations. Islamabad, for instance. You know, that's where our embassy is. It's extremely developed, you know, but not developed in the way that we think of, you know, you're sitting in Southern California and we can go the grocery store and we got the gas station, they have that kind of stuff, but it's like super rudimentary.

(01:15:50):

And they don't they're not they don't really have money to be buying stuff. Right. So it's all just some do what they can kill. Yeah. Yeah. I mean some some some definitely do. I mean this is a major, major city. It's just it's a third world city, I guess. Very dirty. At the at that point in time, I'm sure it's cleaned up significantly now.

(01:16:08):

I mean, now it's 2025, right? Culture. Culture really similar between the two countries. Very similar. Yeah. Especially if you get in the western portions of Pakistan. Oh. Here's a question for you. And I've heard different stories about this, and I wonder how much of it's true. And if you don't wanna talk about it, you don't have. Sure.

(01:16:26):

But there's there's a lot of rumors and you hear stories about.

(01:16:32):

So I had one one buddy of mine that was he was a Green Beret and he was over there. He was telling me about man boy Love Thursdays. That a real thing? Man? Boy love. Yeah, man. Yeah. I mean, that's a real thing. It is. And I think it's less of a thing. It's most definitely less of a thing.

(01:16:49):

In Pakistan, they're much more developed in Afghanistan. But in I mean, even Iraq, you know, I don't know what it is about the culture, but like, yeah, I mean, it's there, you know what I mean? It's out in the open. Like that's a normal thing. I don't think it's necessarily out in the open, you know. But if you have some past 13, which I'm dating myself now, like that's like the original thermal, you know, like you would see some really weird things on a, on a thermal device in the middle of the night when nobody knows you're watching, you know?

(01:17:20):

Yeah, I would say that that's kind of a real thing. But not normal practice in anybody that's civilized, you know? And, and both countries have different regions that are highly civil. It's good that you say that. Yeah, because I think I've heard stories of like, yeah, it's just a thing. And everybody's, you know, like men are pedophiles there.

(01:17:38):

And that's normal. And, you know, you hear these stories. Yeah. And I think it's important for people to know that it like you said, it's not a widely it is not. You know what I mean? Like, that's the guy you for saying that's the scum of the earth. And that's why I, you know, I'm not that I'm shying away from the topic, like, but I don't want to put a stigma on, you know, those people, right?

(01:17:58):

Like, that's the scum of the earth and they know it too, you know what I mean? Like, that's not a widely practiced thing. It is not an approved thing, you know, like you would be shunned away from the tribe or the family. But it happens. And I'm so glad it happens. You know, you hear these stories, and, I mean, I was listening to another podcast, I won't say which one was, and this guy was going on about it.

(01:18:22):

And it's so irresponsible for one person to be sharing a story like that without going into detail or like what you just did, because what that does is it breeds hate. Sure, exactly. There may be some evil people there, or that obviously there are. Right. But but to talk about it in that way and then have every American think, yeah, okay.

(01:18:43):

So people in Afghanistan are all pedophiles and that's a normal thing happens on Thursdays, right. You know what I mean? It's yeah, it's nuts. And and you would absolutely see that. I mean, there's the young I guarantee there's young kids in the military that probably think the same. Like, let me tell you, Afghanistan, there's Afghanistan, Pakistan. They are some of the most patriotic people.

(01:19:04):

They love their country and they love their family and they love their tribesmen. You know, like at the end of the day. Yeah, it's a little bit it's Third world. It's completely different lifestyle over there than what we live. But like going back to your roots of taking care of the family and what family? Family's everything to them.

(01:19:25):

Religion is everything to them. You know, their tribe, real tribes, you know, these things you read about some of this in the Bible. You know, that's how old they date back like that exists, you know, and for them to love it so much and for them to, they'll die for it, you know, they're very patriotic. You know, they're still humans.

(01:19:46):

Yeah. You know, you said that you have a certain respect. Yeah. 100% after living there for I mean, I think I got 16 months time, on the eastern portion, you know, from Afghanistan and Pakistan, like. Yeah. There's friends, you know, we made friends over time, you know what I mean? And it brings a whole nother perspective that kind of goes back to, you know, I know for a fact the first deployment in Iraq, we made enemies.

(01:20:13):

You know, we didn't know what the hell we were doing. The roads were lax. We made a lot of enemies. And then like as you sit there and you learn and then you go into these senior organizations, you know, being in SOF, I learned so much, so much, so quickly is like, dude, they're people. They're human beings. You know what I mean?

Justin McMillen (01:20:31):

They're fighting. They are also wanting to fight for their country. You know, they don't condone everything that is taking place. You know, as far as a terrorist attacks. And it's only a finite few, you know, you have opinions or thoughts on what do you think it is on? Yeah. Sure. I mean, say what you want, you don't say anything if you don't want to.

Dan Parks (01:20:53):

Or. So I studied Urdu when I was deployed back in, Pakistan. I started Urdu for 16 months. I actually used to speak fluent Urdu, which is the language of Pakistan. It's actually. So it's the mother language of India, even though now the recognized language is Hindu, but all of western India, they still speak Urdu, all of Pakistan speaks Urdu, and most of eastern Afghanistan speaks Urdu.

Justin McMillen (01:21:17):

And so you speak Urdu and you speak Urdu, right? And so like I learned Urdu. Could you imagine, like this country accent that you're hearing right now? Speaking? I mean, I used to speak a mean Urdu, like two plus two plus, which on that scale is a fluent speaker. And I remember being in Baghdad saying that and say, how are you?

(01:21:33):

Oh, man. Assalamualaikum. You know, while I am Salaam, I stopped using it though after Pakistan. I think if I, if I started studying it again, I would get it back pretty quick. But through that 16 months a study is like, if you've never read the Koran, I invite everyone to to read some passages. You know, it's not all doom and gloom.

(01:21:55):

It is almost identical to the Bible, you know, and I don't know, I'm no priest and pastor and like, I don't know all the, you know, differences between the two religions, but I can tell you they're like very, very similar, like the Koran is written very close to the Bible, and the Bible is written very close to the Koran, you know, did you feel like when you were there and you, you know, because people are praying multiple times a day.

(01:22:20):

Yeah. You're doing the whole thing. Did you feel like the, like what was your feeling of the religion? Did it feel good? Did it feel dangerous? Did it feel scary? No. Was it warm? Yeah, I think it was warm, you know. And I choose not to believe it. You know, I choose not to follow that faith. I'm Baptist by nature.

(01:22:41):

And the way I was raised, you know, southern boy. Southern. But if you don't do this, you go to hell. You know, like, but, yeah, you would see them pray, you know, 3 or 4 times a day and they would always invite you, invite you. And it seemed very warm. They're very passionate people, you know, it's weird.

(01:23:02):

It's almost like carrying, like they're. I'm a country boy. So sometimes people call me a close talker. You know? I'm. I'll get real close to you when we're talking, you know? And like, they're very passionate. Like, they'll grab your hand and, like, what a super. It's almost like they're like a super loving, caring, passionate. They love their god, but they love humans, you know, like, it's almost like, I don't know, Mother Earth.

Dan Parks (01:23:27):

It's like super Yogi kind of almost, you know what I mean? Like, it's it's weird. It's it's a very warming. It's a very warming religion, you know, and it's to me, it's very similar. Why why is it why is it demonized so much? I mean, there's a lot of militant. There's a lot of brains and a lot of folks that would.

Justin McMillen (01:23:44):

Sure. You know, that is, Yeah. It's an evil religion. It's it's all about killing people. And there's like, what do you think? We're fighting the holy war when I fight in the holy War, you know what I mean? Like, that's because it dates back to, you know, 2001, September 11th. They were Muslim, you know, and like, it's just ridiculous.

Dan Parks (01:24:02):

You know, once you kind of grow up in this off network and, like, you really look at it, it we're not fighting the holy war here, you know what I mean? They have their own religion. They have the right to their own religion. You know, it'd be no different than, you know, us, judging somebody here. And so because there's some crazies down here in Southern California now, like, that's something I've learned, you know what I mean?

(01:24:23):

Is, like, it'd be no different than somebody praying to Buddha. You know, then you having somebody else praying to Allah and us judging the person that's praying to Allah by the person that's praying to Buddha that they have their own beliefs. It doesn't make him a bad person. You know, it doesn't make the guy that's praying to Buddha just because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm Baptist, you know, I have no judgment towards that.

(01:24:48):

You know, you gotta, that's an awesome perspective. Damn sure. It's important to here to this. That'll be a good clip out of all of this. Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot of people that, you know, I'm a,

(01:25:05):

I really believe that we have to find ways to care about each other more, and that even if we think we're doing good by saying or condemning people, this is bad. And that's not. It's like it's just it's just growing. Hatred and hatred is the opposite of all the things that are going to make us come together. Yeah.

(01:25:22):

So yeah. So I it's your, your opinion about it's important. Sure. You know thank you I appreciate it. And I hope that like you know that brings a little bit of light to the American population. You know what I mean? Like because, you know I can't stereotype. You're the dude. You're a Southern Baptist. You'd think you'd be like, no, I'm here fighting for Christ, and this is it.

(01:25:42):

And you're like, no, I respect I'm an American. We respect religion. Yeah. And I experienced it this way, and I'm not afraid to fucking say it. Yeah, I'm not going to just talk shit on Islam because I fought wars over there. Right. I'm going to talk to you about how I speak the language and I respect the people.

Justin McMillen (01:25:57):

Yeah, I respect the people. That's exactly right. And I mean, it's prevalent in, in southern, you know, in the southern United States, in the South. Here's another one for you. So what's the deal with, there's a lot of hatred for them. I mean, in all the places you've been for America, do you think that that hatred. Let me start over.

(01:26:17):

Obviously, there's people shooting at you. They want to kill the opposing force. Is it because we're Americans and they know we're Americans? Or is it because there's someone shooting at them and they're in their country? Do you understand what I mean? Like, do you think there's actual people in Afghanistan or thinking about our country and they're thinking about how they want to destroy Americans?

(01:26:37):

Or do you think when we end up on their their dirt? Yeah. And it's now fighting. They're like, we don't want you here. But really, I don't know what the hell. They don't know anything about the global political game whatsoever. Yeah, I, I mean, that's an interesting perspective to go even further because I want to be clear on this.

(01:26:53):

So like, yeah, the story of bin laden and it's like we have to take down the West. Right. Do you think that there's that the people that you are fighting, most of them are thinking, we got to take down the West, or were they just thinking like, I got my family? I think a lot of them, they got their family, you know what I mean?

Dan Parks (01:27:09):

They got their family in here. Yeah, I sad to say. Here's the bottom line. What do we do? We left. We left. You know what I mean? And you're fighting. You're fighting against the values that have been established since the biblical error, you know, since before Jesus Christ. You know, like it talks about it in the Bible, 2000 BC type, you know, mentality is they grew up a certain way.

(01:27:42):

And at the end of the day, America, you know, we come safe from the Taliban, for instance, right? You know what I mean? Like we keep we gave back Afghanistan and then Taliban took Afghanistan with what I think it was three days after we pulled out. Super unfortunate. And I, I don't want to get into those views, you know what I mean?

(01:28:00):

I don't I have my own views about it. But I was also a military man and, sure, you know, so I respect that for sure. Yeah, yeah. I just, you know, as a military man, at the end of the day, I follow the commander in chief, and I do exactly what I'm told. And that's exactly where it should be.

(01:28:18):

You know? But they're not trying to fight the West. I don't think the majority aren't your extremists, which take Islam and the Muslim faith to a whole nother level. That's extremism, you know, to fight the West is, you think is the extremist out of the whole picture? Is it like half is it like 30%? Okay. I'll just I'm just throwing a number out there.

(01:28:44):

In terms of the people that are fighting, the actual war is 30% are extremists. The other 70 percentage is people. They're like, we got to do this right. People are going to kill us if we don't stand up. We're they're going to take our country or they're going to affect the way we have to live. Well, that goes back to where what I was in thank you for keeping on track is we're going to leave.

(01:29:03):

Right. And so, like if you're going into a location such as Afghanistan and we take over Afghanistan and we you know, stood up, the presidency and, and, you know, gave the gave the country back to its population. And but they know that they're going to be re invaded by the Taliban after we leave. You know, that's kind of what you're up fighting against.

(01:29:28):

I mean, you're fighting an insurgency war. Alexander the Great couldn't do in 25 years, you know, like in that, you know, to me, after doing a lot of research and thinking about it and, you know, it's taught in, in the military, like how long a fighting insurgency takes. We were just now on the cusp of it, you know, it's 2025.

Justin McMillen (01:29:49):

We started in 2003, you know, like so they knew we were going to leave. So if you know that the United States is going to leave, then who do you side with? And that's where I think that it gets a really bad rap that everybody's extremist. You know, it's not that everybody's extremists, it's that if they don't at least assist, sympathize, maybe, provide food and shelter.

(01:30:17):

Well, one, you know, the extremist organizations are going to kill them, but two, if they don't do that, well, guess what? I'm going to have a memory. I remember you, you didn't take care of me when I needed it. Now the country's mine again, you know, and it's that mentality. It's. It makes complete. It's terror. It's terrorism. Right.

(01:30:35):

It's they they work off of terror. And if they know that we're not going to be around for the long haul, you know, it's like, of course, no wonder there's sympathizers. No wonder it's so difficult to fight a war. And no wonder it's so, you know, you're fighting somebody that's not in uniform. You don't even know who your enemy is until you know you're in the gunfight.

(01:30:56):

No wonder. What did they. Extremists. What do you think? Is there any kind of unifying threat against all. Yeah. I mean, you hit it on the head, you know, death to the west. In the west, the West must fall. Why do you think?

Dan Parks (01:31:10):

I don't ask you for your opinion. Not the right answer. Yeah. I don't know if anyone knows the true answer to that. Yeah, because I think, it's a threat to their faith. It's a threat somehow, some way they view the Western culture as a threat to their faith. You know, we, you know, it's, you know, it's acceptable still to stone someone over in Afghanistan.

(01:31:34):

It's still acceptable to all these biblical things that, you know, where punishments for people are still taught. You know, more on the extremist side, but, you know, the Western way definitely puts a damper on, you know, the way they would like to see Afghanistan and the East. Want to see it like that, though. Or is it just there's like some powerful small force within these countries that still wants to hold on to Sharia law and to stone people to death?

(01:32:04):

And or is that like everybody is that extremist view? I think it's an extremist view, actually. I know it's an extremist view. You know, you get in these populated centers, Bagram, for instance, or Islamabad in Pakistan doesn't exist. You know, they have started to adopt the Western way. You know, they'll dress in regular clothing. There's some that still don't dress in Western clothing.

(01:32:25):

It's when you get out into the outlined locations, you know, sort of like if you were to go into an extremely, rural part of America and maybe find some more extremist kind of folks. Sure. Right. Yeah. You know, go into the Deep South, you know what I mean? Pray the prayer. You're gay away, or maybe racism or I don't know what.

(01:32:50):

It's very similar to that actually in Western culture. You know, I mean, there's a huge movement towards what LGBTQ and you like. Yeah. Don't get it. I don't even want to. Yeah. Terrible. Edit that out. You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying there like there's a there's viewpoints of of different people and they'll fight about it. It's the same exact thing.

(01:33:10):

But it's good. Again, I think you guys, you guys being all the veterans that have been over there, do you maybe assume that we that the regular public here knows this stuff, but they don't. We're all getting messages too. And there's a lot of things that would over generalize stuff to where you would think, oh, everybody, you know, stones everyone to death and everybody likes that.

(01:33:34):

Sure. What they do and yeah, you know that, everybody hates America versus like we said, 30% may be extremists. And then. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. Really valuable for you to talk about this stuff. It's it's, you know, this was the area I didn't even know we were going to get in in this either. But I told you, I didn't prep for this at all.

(01:33:53):

That there's a there's another, foot stomp for everybody. You know, I was just shooting from the hip, you know, that's the kind of person I am. But, yeah. Yeah. There. I lost my head right there. See it happen again, fellas. So. Okay. So. Yeah, man, that's a whole. That's really good stuff to hear. I think we need to hear more voices like that, that talk about the different culture.

(01:34:20):

What's beautiful is that you're saying, like, I'm here to fight a war and I do my thing, Ryan and I, I'm. I'm trying to kill bad guys. But you're also able to understand the community and the culture, and you haven't had to paint it in a terrible way in order to do your job, right? Yeah. I think that's really important, you know, might be part of why you're healthy.

(01:34:40):

Sure. You know. Yeah. I'm not saying that. I mean, I'm not saying people who don't do that aren't healthy, but it could be part of the recipe, which I think is important for people to to hear about, you know? Well, I mean, if you live your life in hatred, all the time, I guess hatred is what you're going to get, you know, like, how can you live that miserable because eventually becomes miserable.

(01:35:05):

Eventually hatred will get the best of you and you'll be miserable because nobody wants to be around you, or everybody is scared of you. You know, it's like I've had the luxury of going all over the world on multiple deployments, you know, and seeing the different cultures. And like, what I've come up with is the humans, the humans just like us, right?

(01:35:27):

We're deployed on task and purpose, and most of the time, actually almost all the time, the locations that we go in either assist or partner or not partner, it doesn't matter. The human population supports getting after the bad guys. You know they do. They support getting after the bad guys. And so, you know, I think everybody could do right by doing a little bit more, research themselves.

(01:35:55):

Don't believe everything you hear in the media. God knows the me I mean, we talked about it, you know, CNN versus Fox versus ABC. Like.

(01:36:04):

Man, I can remember like, sitting and sitting and, you know, a talk somewhere and, like, hearing what's happening on the news and being like, man, it's just like, where do they come up with the material for half of it, you know what I mean? Like, where do they come up with the material? Not don't believe everything you hear in the news.

(01:36:21):

And don't for the sake of following somebody because that's what you heard, you know, the Muslim culture or whatever, you know for instance, like do your own research, come up with your own opinion. What you'll find is there's a lot of humanity out there in most everybody's views align. You know, it's just different cultures, different locations. Why are we always fighting with each other then?

(01:36:45):

I don't know, why do I fight with my sister? And, you know, I, I it's in human nature, I guess, you know, maybe that goes back to who we, we're talking about where you need. We need, like, an opposition in order to feel close to each other. Yeah. Could be. Yeah. Could be you know, could be. It's a way to bring everybody together, you know, there and done.

(01:37:07):

Don't get me wrong. Right. Like, if we're deployed in locations, you know, to fight against them, it's we have different viewpoints, you know, and a Western viewpoint can be completely different than, you know, another viewpoint. And, and ultimately, that's what we're fighting for is the United States of America, right? We have no choice but to be the best, right?

(01:37:31):

We are the best. We got to stay the best. You know, I think that's a big part of it. You know, I think that there's a lot of part of the worlds that see us as, prideful, really prideful, and, you know, like to beat our chest, you know, and that probably causes some distaste in some of these countries.

(01:37:55):

But, you know, everywhere that I've deployed to, they all see our views. They all want us this United States. They are, you know, sympathize with the cause. I'd say Iraq and Afghanistan was the, you know, the two locations that I've been where it wasn't necessarily the case, you know, how do you think that spending so many years deployed in fighting has shaped you as an American?

(01:38:21):

How does it change the way that you see yourself as an American? I want I'm super patriotic. I'm super patriotic. And I think we've kind of touched on, you know, how it changes my views. Like, I understand, I understand the world if I, if I was to add it all up, I think I came up with like this eight years overseas time of deployment time and seeing the various cultures and the way people interact.

(01:38:50):

It's made me educated, that's for sure. It's made me slower. I'm going to say slower on the trigger. But, you know, that's probably a terrible term talking military, you know what I mean? It's made me it's made me slow down and think about things and come up with my own viewpoints, you know, and understand, you know, why they may think the way they think versus the way we think.

(01:39:11):

You know, it's made me cultured, very cultured. You know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of things here in the United States, you know, that coming back after being overseas for so long, you know, being in Germany, for instance, and coming back and, you know, Germany's super green, there's bike paths all over the place and everything is pristine and perfect.

(01:39:34):

There's no trash. Nobody throws trash on the ground. It's all up capped. And then Thailand then Dallas, Texas, you know, Fort Worth. And I swear, I thought I landed back in the middle of Iraq there for a second. Now we are doing a lot of construction down there. But like, man, I'm like, where's the pride and wear and tear?

(01:39:55):

Yeah. Like where what happened to us? To where it's okay to throw the candy wrapper out the window and not put it in the garbage. We're just destroying our own land. Essentially, and in more ways than just trash, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think I think in a lot of ways, we're destroying our selves internally, you know?

(01:40:17):

You know, what's interesting is I think that at least in some part.

(01:40:23):

American ideals are spreading. Democracy is really about giving people the freedom to have a choice about who they want to be. Absolutely. You know, yeah, it's sort of like forcing people to like, I give you, if you could say anything bad, it's like we're forcing them to be free. Yeah. Yes. You know, but it's like if I think the argument is that humans, maybe some people believe in the non-Western world that humans are too flawed to be free.

(01:40:55):

You know, that's an interesting idea because I think here that's that's really on trial right now. Right? Like, our Americans have a lot of freedom and I think we're abusing it a little bit. And I think it's causing society to fall apart in a lot of ways. Yeah. You know, we were talking about this outside of the podcast, but I think, you know, we're we're in a place where the US is, is arguably it is the greatest our institutions have created the greatest expression of human freedom.

(01:41:27):

You know, in known history. Right. And that's great. And we've created abundance and we've created all these things. But with that, if there's no values attached to that, if people don't have their own values, then the interaction with that freedom becomes hedonism. And I think maybe the non-Western world, the people who are saying the West needs to go down, maybe they think the humans shouldn't be free because ultimately they will fail.

(01:41:57):

And so really, because we're the world's superpower, we're kind of out there with a spotlight on us. And the question is, are we going to are we going to fail at this experiment and freedom? You know, and that's so yeah, as a scary and interesting idea, I think. Yeah. Crazy, right? I mean, America will not fail. We can start there.

(01:42:23):

We won't fail. Right? I think you're right. We won't. It's been proven time and again. We will band together in times of crisis and we will accomplish the mission, whatever mission that may be, whatever the next thread is, we'll band together. But, you know, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, having a bunch of kids in a classroom.

(01:42:45):

And if you're at the front of the classroom and you're teaching most of the time you can get the kids to pay attention and, you know, you'll single out the ones that aren't paying attention and that are, you know, causing a ruckus. And you can keep everybody occupied. Right now, we're not occupied. And we're like that class that doesn't have the teacher at front and everybody's arguing and touching each other and feeling each other and hitting each other and throwing things at each other, you know what I mean?

(01:43:15):

Is, like and that next big thing, that next big thing is like the teacher that has to come back into the classroom. And I don't know how we ban the country is divided right now. Yeah. And I've I've done a lot of reading the book tribe, for instance, it mentions, you know, the one thing that could harm us the worst is the terrorist organizations or our strategic competitors don't do anything at all, and they just keep letting them see.

(01:43:47):

Yeah. Now that's scary to think about, you know what I mean? Because we're eating ourselves from the inside out. That's exactly right. That's why it's crazy. That's why it's that's why it's scary, is that if the enemy is actually our own self destruction, then banding together requires us to acknowledge what's wrong with us internally. It's not about the external world.

(01:44:12):

And then come together around fixing what's going on with the people here. Right. And that's that's a different kind of enemy. And I think China, I think Russia, any countries that have engaged in subversion and there's tons they think the they probably assume the only way for us to fall is for us to fall from within. Right? Right.

(01:44:30):

And that's, it's arguably happening in a lot of ways, which is. Yeah. You know. Sure. And then they just feed off of it. Yeah. It's called propaganda. You know, I would say 90% of the stuff you see on TV is propaganda. It's it's false. You know what I mean? It's it's false hopes. It's selling false hopes. It's selling false information.

(01:44:52):

And we believe it and we watch it and then we'll fight for it. And all the while, the message can be driven for China from China or Russia, for all we know. In fact, it's been proven, you know, like not everything you see is real or there's just little areas of the United States or little issues that get amplified.

(01:45:11):

And then the whole country believes that this is how everybody thinks or feels. Yeah. You only see that I don't think human beings are capable of like wrapping their heads around the magnitude of the population. You know, in 350 million people here. And I think, you know, you could take less than 1% of them and you could have some terrible stuff going on with those folks.

(01:45:33):

You could show that to people all day, every day for weeks. Get the whole country believing that the whole country is like this little tiny percentage of the whole. And you could shift the whole population thinking that this is a huge subject that really matters, when in fact it's it matters, but it's not in the scale of things.

(01:45:52):

It's nothing. You know, it's not the majority, not even close. Yeah. I think that's one of the problems too. Yeah. I think about this stuff all the time. And I think that guys like you in the messages that you can bring in other veterans, you have the messages that the rest of us need to hear. I think you have a perspective on what it is to be an American.

(01:46:14):

You have a perspective on the world that the rest of us need desperately right now. Yeah. And I think just it's we need you like that's the next mission. Probably for a lot of you folks that are trying to transition out, it's like like the civilians here are so out of touch. Yeah. And we need perspective and we need to get brought back down to what it means to be American and the best Americans.

(01:46:42):

Guys like yourself, right? Need to share messages with all of us so we understand how to come together. Right. And it's a it's a big deal. And I think maybe the new the new war to fight is one to save the culture of this country. Sure. You know so and we have to do something, you know what I mean?

(01:47:02):

I can teach you to be a patriot. I can teach you to be a leader. I can't make you stand be that leader, though, right? You know what I mean? And I, I watch what's going on is like. We have a president that's been elected president. I want to get super deep in politics, but like, he is the commander in chief, he is the leader of the nation.

(01:47:23):

And like, we have this freedom of speech. And I mean, just look at all the stuff that you hear in the news and you see in the news. It's crazy to me, you know, and defund the police. And, you know, we're in the news where acting like the president isn't the president, you know, like you're going to be able to do anything about it at the current moment until the next election.

(01:47:49):

You know, it's like or we been we what the last few presidents have had impeachment. So they are actually trying to do something that have been altered. So I don't I don't know man. It's like we're fighting ourselves, you know, and it's the lack of leadership, you know, like, you know, we're not governors should be leaders. And, you know, standing up and then we argue against them.

(01:48:12):

Police should be leaders. And you want to defend defund them, and teachers should be leaders. And, you know, we're trying to manipulate the school system and control what information is pushed. You know, that's propaganda, by the way. Yeah. You know, we're doing it to ourselves. Like somehow what is it called here? I'm going to date myself.

(01:48:35):

But like the woke nation with a woke me. Everybody's woke now, you know? Whatever. Maybe I just describe what woke means, but, like, come on. Yeah. No. How do governors do it? How to leaders do it? And then I think, I think the low hanging fruit is here's how I get everyone united. I got my people right where it gets those people.

Justin McMillen (01:48:57):

Sure. And then that unifies my people, right? So if you didn't do it that way, how do you bring people together if it's not to fight against somebody else? Because that fighting is what's causing us to should it be the external world? And like, how do we what's the fight? You know, I mean, if you were to tell the governor of California, God help them, right.

(01:49:20):

But if you were, if you were to tell the governor of California how to get all of California to be, like red and blue, how would you do it? I know I can tell you one thing. He can get blue to unite against red. Right? But how does he get everybody to come together? Maybe it's California against everyone else again.

(01:49:36):

Say like, how do you how do you do it without having. I don't know, the I don't know the answer to this either. Really. I don't know the answer to this is like, you got to have a common purpose. We got to figure out what the common purposes I leaders are, those that stand up and people want to emulate.

(01:49:57):

They want to be like them. They understand their viewpoints and they strive right, their mentors or they should be mentors. And right now I think there's in leadership roles like, are we doing the right thing as far as mentors, you know, like, are we as leaders showing the population that this is the way you know or are we as leaders, continuing the infighting and thus fueling the fire that's happening inside the country?

Dan Parks (01:50:27):

You know, and I see that all I mean, the Democrat versus the Republican, you know what I mean? It's like everybody's trying to talk shit on everybody. Everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a never ending cycle. And we're stuck in that cycle right now. And technology isn't helping us, you know, because I got just about everything I need from the news sitting in the palm of my hand sped off of I.

(01:50:49):

Right. And I says, if if I click this one thing right, if I click on, you know, motorcycles, then everything's going to pop up on my feed is motorcycles. And so if you're in these types of arguments on political parties and the left versus the right or whatever, everything you see is going to be exactly what you want to hear, and it just fuels the fire over and over and over and over, you know?

(01:51:13):

Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. But how to fix it? I just I don't know, I don't, I don't know, I, I really, I really don't, you know, I would love to say you band together and we follow. Follow. This is what I do for the military. Follow the commander in chief. Right. And I think the purpose is interesting.

(01:51:31):

Dan, I think you know what I do for work and and I think that, the, the headlines. If you just put big pictures health. Right. I want people to be healthier. Right. That's, that's my that's my. Besides being a father and husband, that's my purpose here. And on planet Earth is I'm trying to help people be healthier.

(01:51:52):

And a big part of why I think, RFK s message resonated with so many people, even though there's a lot of people who hate him or whatever. I think he created, like, thing to fight against, which is the sickness of America. And that was what was most compelling to me because I was like, well, there's an interesting thing.

(01:52:10):

Like, I think everyone can come together on this, right? Like if over 50% of kids are obese and everybody's on medications and not everybody's sick in the country, then now we can have this thing we can point at. And of course, people want to make it big Pharma, or they want to make it this or that, but there is a unifying thread there.

(01:52:29):

Sure, that could unify all parties, right? Everyone's you know, it doesn't matter if you're red or you're blue. People have seen someone die in a cancer. They've seen someone you know, with autism or they've seen and I do think that that is one way, because the common enemy could be the thing that's trying to kill us, which could be our behaviors.

(01:52:49):

Right? We can single out what it is that is hurting us, and then we come together around trying to fix that. You know, I have this, like, grandiose vision of, you know, so we have done so many things. I mean, we, you know, flight was was created here. I mean, the Wright brothers, we went to the moon space and all the things that we've created.

(01:53:11):

And I think we've shown the world a lot of amazing stuff. And it's it's incredible to be an American and to be part of a country absolutely done that, you know? Yeah. And I'm proud of that. Oh, yeah. And then I think the next thing I mean, we're we are the sickest country in the nation or in the world.

(01:53:31):

We spend more money in health care than any other nation in the, in the Western world and, or in the world. And we have the sickest population. And maybe our next mission is to show the world how to be the healthiest population. That could be the next thing. Yeah. You know, just like we show people how to fly, we showed people how to do all the other things that we we did.

(01:53:50):

You know, maybe it's that we're the example of what it looks like to be strong and healthy. Sure. You know, so that's my pie in the sky like hopes and dreams, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that sort of thing. I want I want to keep going on your career, though, because it gets really cool. Sure.

Justin McMillen (01:54:07):

I mean, it's already been cool, but it gets really cool after these parts, right? So then. So. Well, actually, I have a question for you also, though, this way you see the world and the respect you have for cultures. Do you think that's a, do you think that's a raid or a mask thing? Do you think a lot of the guys that are in masks see the world that way?

(01:54:30):

Or is that a darn thing? Because every, every, every different section of the soft community, right. Sure. Our own sort of culture, I think it's often general soft and soft in general. Right. Yeah. I mean, we all deployed the same locations, do the same activities as soft in general and senior leaders, senior leaders. I think it's the younger generation that just doesn't understand they haven't chose to understand they haven't at chose to educate themselves.

Dan Parks (01:55:01):

You know, staff has been a great career for me that has provided me the ability to go and see different locations so that I can develop my own opinions, as opposed to, you know, the marine infantryman, you know, that no longer has a war to fight. And that is sitting in the barracks probably playing video games right now.

(01:55:25):

They train 6 to 8 hours a day. They're not super happy because most of them are going to the field right now on Thanksgiving, you know, and they're like, what am I doing here? You know, they're not educating themselves on the world, right? They're they're focused on the next fight. And they don't know what the next fight is.

(01:55:42):

They start losing interest. You know, it's education really. Like we haven't we haven't provided the vessel for, you know, all of the military, I think, to get around and kind of understand the locations and why we do things and the places that we deploy to. I think SOF, because we're small units, you know, we're running around in 14 man teams and it's it's easier to move SOF around.

(01:56:08):

You know, it's easier to move stuff around and thus, you know, deployment cycle after deployment cycle after deployment cycle gives us different perspectives and viewpoints on what makes sense. You know, something that I would say 90% of the United States will never get to see? You know. Yeah, you and then you got to see a lot of after so after Pakistan.

(01:56:26):

Sure. So Pakistan, let's see. This is 2009, 2011. So then I came back, stayed on the same team for a while. So I'm pretty much the growth of every Marine Raider mask and operator. You know, you're going to start at the lowest in the totem pole and you're going to work your way up so, you know, your weapons specialist or whatever it may be to an assistant element later.

(01:56:52):

So, you know, the assistant team lead of a small team of four, and then you become an element leader, right? There's growth and you become an office chief, a team chief, whatever. You move outside of the team. You know, moving outside of the team is where you do your learning. You know, the team rotations is great with your focus on, you know, one perspective of one location.

(01:57:15):

I had one job, and yes, I had a beautiful career, that allowed me to move about, based off my voice. So coming back from 2009, I stayed on the team for a while. We deployed Morocco, Malaysia and Morocco. Malaysia. What'd you think in the Philippines? Oh, that was fun. Malaysia's cool, Malaysia's cool. We were only there for, like, three, four weeks in Malaysia.

(01:57:46):

Don't give me line. Don't give me a lot going for. Okay. Yeah. That was only. It was like a three, four, four week rotation. You know, going and, it was a train, a mission to train with, their version of the Marines. And, Yeah, it was cool. It was, it was it was different. You know, I had never been in, like, the specific regions, you know, you'll see, as you've read in my profiles, most of my career was based in Africa.

(01:58:13):

So, like, getting to go to a different location, you know, Malaysia, the Philippines. Oh, Philippines is awesome. You know, we were stuck on a little island. Hello, Island. Training the Filipino Marines like, these are some hard core dudes. Yeah, like hard core. Like, smacking each other with bamboo, like. Oh, yeah. Like living in the jungles, man. You know, like their barracks is a hut on the outskirts of a jungle with 50 hammocks hanging in this thing.

(01:58:40):

And the guys, like, take whiskey and put ginseng in it and, like, drink this every single like these are some wild dudes, you know what I mean? Especially on, like, a small island, like Hola. And, But I loved it. You know what? I'm beautiful. Water, right? Oh, God. It's crystal clear. Like, I remember stacking hundreds of starfish up in, like, this big heaping pile, you know?

(01:59:03):

And they're all, like, blue and pink and yellow and purple. Man, the water was amazing. They're like the diving out of this world. Sure. So the beaches were really cool, but the jungles are really cool too. And in that one, you know, we train them like war fighting tactics, primarily, weapons manipulation did a lot of shooting with those guys.

(01:59:22):

But in return, we got to learn jungle, right? And surviving in the jungle, which I thought was awesome. You know, like, learn these guys, these guys go into a pack, you know, with a pack or with a pack on with a couple pots and pans, you know, a bag of rice. And next thing I know, we're, like, in the middle of the jungle, and we're, like, setting up these little bamboo traps, you know, I'm like, what the hell are we going to catch?

(01:59:44):

Like, oh, we're going to catch the Hilo monsters, you know what I mean? Like these huge damn lizards in the middle of the jungle, or they eat everything, you know what I mean? But let me tell you something. Hilo Monster is amazing. Yeah. And so, like you, you set up this great. What is a human monster for people who don't know great big lizard man like these great big lizards.

(02:00:05):

And they run rampant all throughout the jungle, you know? And so, like, we set up these little bamboo tunnels, if you will, which is basically like a chute. So, you know, you set it up to where, like there's an opening inside the bush, for instance, and then inside the opening. Then you would set up like this bamboo shoot a tunnel, and then at the end you would put a bait with a noose and like, we would catch these lizards man inside of like chunks of, yeah, we would catch these lizards in like chunks of big, huge bamboo.

(02:00:34):

Like, I've never seen bamboo that big. I mean, you're talking like bamboo almost, you know, the size of a soccer ball around, like these big bamboo shoots, you know, and we would catch these huge monsters, and then we'd skin them up, and you know, dice them up. Man, it's better than chicken, I'll tell you that. Yeah. Is it like gator or.

(02:00:51):

It's just like gator gators? Yeah, it's really, really good. But, you know, they would go out there and teach us, you know, how they eat the various plants, how to survive off the jungle lands, how to collect the water. I'd never been in the jungle before, like real jungle. You know, I've been to Hawaii like, once, right? And that's.

(02:01:10):

I guess there's some similar places, but, like, the real jungle, like, you know, palm trees with coconuts that you climb up and you drink all your water from the coconuts, typically, or the rainwater that you catch off the leaves. And, like, I don't know if you know this or not, but bananas actually grow in a forest or a jungle somewhere, you know, like here.

(02:01:31):

Before then I never seen a banana. Yeah, like they must have grown in the store somewhere, you know, like California or something like that, you know, like, but you know what a great experience to go and hang out in the jungles. We were there for about three and four months on that rotation. And, man, the Filipino, the Filipino Marines are some hard dudes.

(02:01:53):

There's some hard dudes like combat hardened and super family oriented, super family oriented, you know, and that was cool. The camaraderie hanging out with, you know, every single night, we'd all circle around like a bonfire and like, you couldn't. I mean, you could tell by skin color, I guess. But like, as far as, like the soldier ship of being able to hang out with one another, you know, there we would all be mixed together around this campfire, laughing, cutting, Berrigan passing a bottle of gin, seeing whiskey.

(02:02:24):

And everybody gets amped up on Mountain Dew and, like, it turns into a riot, man. Yeah, it turns into a riot. But, did they sing? Oh, yeah. A lot of Filipinos love. Yeah, they love to sing. They love to play music or songs. Yes. Oh, gosh. Everything. Yeah. So then you go to Manila, right? And you're like, these guys, I think actually one of the famous bands, I can't remember which band they just hired, a Filipino singer, I'll think of it, but I know what you're talking about.

(02:02:51):

It was on the news anyway. Karaoke. Do their crazy at karaoke, like, they. You got Manila, you got, like, karaoke bar or something like that. Like, these guys can make themselves sound exactly like the musicians that make the song, and you're like, it's awesome. My wife's, my wife's from Hawaii, but she's, part Filipino, so my kids are part Filipino.

(02:03:14):

And she's got some, Filipino friend named Elva, her and her husband, Ryan, and they're really into karaoke. Yeah, and they're good at it. Yeah, yeah, it's a thing for sure. I haven't been there. Yeah, I've been to Malaysia and Indonesia, all around Southeast Asia. I've been up in Cambodia and, even at Burma. Yeah, I land.

(02:03:34):

It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. I love that whole area of the world. It's just such a it's peaceful, warm. The people are great. The food is good. The climate. I like the climate there. Yeah, I like humid, like jungly kind of climate, you know. Sure. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I guess, and, you know, now you got me thinking about the book of the tribe.

(02:03:53):

Like they live like tribesmen, you know, like they live off the land. They survive off the land, they sleep in hammocks together. And it just blows my mind, you know what I mean? Like, get away from Manila again. Manila's like the version of Islamabad and Bagram, like we're talking about all these built up cities, like, get out of the cities and get with the people, you know, and that's when you get to see the culture.

(02:04:15):

Southeast in big cities in Southeast Asia are mostly pretty nasty. Yeah. It's like stinky. Yes. Yeah. Trash all over the ground and everything like that. You got to get out, you know? You got to get out in the wilderness and man, you fall in love with places like this. Like 2013. Yeah. I'm period. So before what I skipped over.

(02:04:34):

So I did, after coming back from Pakistan, I did a year and a half in Urdu psych right at 16 months. So that's when I became fluent. And that's about at the same time when they said, hey, we're not deploying to Pakistan anymore, right? So I just wasted 16 months of my time, then stuck it out with a team.

(02:04:50):

We went to, Morocco, Malaysia and Philippines, which was great. And then the best thing that ever happened in my career happened to me. My boss, team chief, he was like, Dan, we're sending you to the regiment. And I'm like, fuck, I don't want to go to the regiment. I want to do the team life. You know, for the rest of my career.

(02:05:10):

I don't know, maybe he saw something in there. Or maybe he just wanted me off the team. I don't care which, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because now you put me at a table where I had a voice. And if there's one thing that I'm good at is I'm able to run this thing, you know what I mean?

(02:05:26):

I can just keep going and going, and I can influence just about anybody that I want to. So send me over to the Marine Raider Regiment, which is in charge of all the operational forces that we send overseas. I primarily focus on the Pacific. Well, I held down the Pacific. I held down the Middle Eastern teams, you know, and the current operations role of, like, you know, managing who we're sending while we're sending, and then all the moving pieces it takes to get, you know, from flash to bang of move in personnel from masked compound, for instance, into whatever theater they're going to and all the country coordination and everything like,

(02:06:08):

It got me. You have to train for this or did they just throw you? They just threw me in with the wolves. And it's. And I thrive in that environment. You know, they threw me in with the wolves. I gained some amazing relationships while I was there as a I wasn't actually even the current ops chief. When I first got there.

(02:06:23):

I was just a current ops guy, you know, that was tracking and that, you know, understand how to manage the computers and wasn't afraid to go sit at the end of the table with a bunch of high ranking officers and like, throw the viewpoint of the Marine Ranger Regiment out there. And I began to grow. That's, you know, that's where I, you know, my dear friend, the lieutenant colonel that you've met before we started there, in the Marine Raider Regiment.

(02:06:48):

And then we followed. Well, actually, we started way before that, but, like, that's where we really got to work, together. And so I began making my way up to the current operations chief and just managed operations for MARSOC for, those are 3 or 2 or, and it was great. And and that started a career of managing operations that ended up until my retirement day.

(02:07:17):

From. So I managed current operations in the Marine Raider Regiment. This is like 2000. Let's see, I went there 2013, 14, 15, 16. That lines up. Went back to the teams, got to do a rotation for a few months in Tunisia. So some. Yeah, Tunisia, some. So the entire time, as the current operations chief for the Marine Raider Regiment, I was I was holding down the Middle East in the Pacific move.

(02:07:44):

My primary focus was Africa. And so now now I'm deploying all these teams to Africa. You know, at the time, I think I've been to Morocco and I've only glanced at it, but, you know, getting to work all the behind the scenes on why we're sending troops over there and why, you know, that for you got that, like boots on the ground perspective, too.

(02:08:05):

Yes. We're able to show up and actually be really thoughtful. Yes. And so you're listening. Yeah. It's it's like you've been there, done it. You know how these teams work. You know everybody. Right. Wow. That had to be a big deal for you. It was great. You know like here's the staff sergeant that's sitting at a group of majors lieutenant colonels.

(02:08:22):

And you know we're talking about, you know, where we're going to deploy in the world. Why are we going to deploy? Where does MARSOC fit in? Where, you know, vehicle or not, vehicle video with, so com and talking back and forth, you know, what locations are strategic for MARSOC and why? Just being a part of the bigger picture, you know, and that's kind of where I fell into my, you know, niche, if you, if you will, is like, I'm an ops guy, you know, I fell in love with it.

(02:08:52):

I spent three years. I got some great relationships, but all good things have to come to an end. Ended up going back to a team 2000. Did you have any injuries, by the way? Your body. You you you're fit and strong and capable. You don't seem. You know, I'm alone. I'm a lucky guy. I'm a lucky guy.

(02:09:10):

So Tunisia, so deployed in Tunisia. I ruptured my Achilles. Yeah. Nasty. That's a terrible injury, by the way. One year recovery at minimum, after I ruptured my Achilles, though, you know, I was pulled out of the fight for a minute, you know, and at the time, November company had a great, lieutenant colonel, Gene, when, if you're still out there.

(02:09:36):

Gene, I love you. I miss you. And he did the second best thing that ever happened. And he's like, Dan, I know you can't go and you can't be on the teams. We can't send you the operational theater. But I want you to become the ops chief of the company and manage operations for what at the time was it for?

(02:09:54):

It was a Special Operations Command Ford, Northwest Africa. And I was like, man, I'm honored. You know, like, that's normally a spot for a master sergeant. I was just about to promote to Gunnery sergeant. Like, I'll absolutely do that for you. But he did that because of my role that I had with the Marine Raider Regiment. And so for, seven month, six, seven month rotation, all I did was focus on Northwest Africa.

(02:10:20):

It was awesome. We got to travel, hit all the, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger, did a trip to Algeria once, went back to Morocco, hit Tunisia a couple more times like just managing. And it wasn't just managing MARSOC personnel, it was managing all staff in that theater for all of the missions that were going on. So you got to see the big perspective.

(02:10:44):

And that's like the first time when I really started getting tired and, you know, upper echelons of SoC, you know, the SoC for Northwest Africa, commander, for instance, Colonel and on constant VTC with, you know, generals back it so com, we were a smaller command soc system, so. Jesus. Sahel and Maghreb, so special operations command element, Sahel, the Maghreb.

(02:11:11):

There you go. There's your right. I remember all the acronyms, but then, nobody half the people don't know that I would be speaking. I'm speaking Greek to them, you know. So I think it's important to spell it out to them a little bit, but like a smaller command that was focused on, you know, the operational forces in Northwest Africa.

Justin McMillen (02:11:32):

And like, that's when I got to start traveling around, and actually being a voice for not only ma SoC, but for so com and for specifically sog forward NWA on like, why are we deploying to these locations? Where does it make sense to have the teams? I got to coordinate, you know, with both Army Navy Seals and Ma SoC personnel and making sure that we got their troops in country on time and where they needed to go.

(02:11:58):

And like all the little bitty moving pieces of what it takes to get everything right, coordinating, with a mission, not just coordinating. Right. You're being so you're helping make decisions on who goes where. Yeah, right. And at this point in time, also, you know, I had, been trained, sort of dabbling in the sense of activity.

(02:12:20):

So not only was I managing the operations side, but I was also managing the sense of activity side. So what does that mean? Since the activities. That's. Yeah, I guess, are you allowed to talk about that? Is that. I mean, sure, you know, it's it's in the name sense of activities. You know, it's it's all this it's managing human intelligence.

(02:12:41):

It's man in signal intelligence. It's managing all the little bells and whistles. You know, that make missions come together. It's that it it's really focus on, like, the targeting cycle and then how we how we get our information to feed the targeting cycle so that we can send our guys out, you know, coordinating with like CIA and sure, anybody that's that's providing intelligence.

(02:13:05):

Yeah. So now now that's when I started getting my first take of, you know, the FBI and managing or working with CIA and managing, you know, Dia or Dia, guys that, you know, for whatever reason, at the time, I didn't really understand this, right. Like, you know, why is FBI, why coordinate with FBI? Why recording DEA? It's all about money.

(02:13:27):

It's all about tracking the money. You know, and like, the same fighters that were, you know, trying to go against their shipping and either drugs or money or however that is, and it goes back to the United States and then, you know, how do we transfer that type of information off? And, it's really it's really cool.

(02:13:44):

You know, when I think about it, as young as I was getting to coordinate with all these different agencies and the amount of trust that I was able to gain from all my superiors, you know, this is like when I first started, actually going to the table, as you know, I guess kind of a senior enlisted, but not, you know, I'm I'm the operations chief, so senior enlisted for that command element.

(02:14:09):

But having a seat at the table with these lieutenant colonels and colonels that are making strategic decisions that are feeding, you know, us so com or the co com so combatant commanders you know, those are the commanders in charge of various regions or the theater special operation commanders, which are the special operation commanders that are in charge of the different regions like Africom, UK, Africa Command, European Command, they're spread all over the world.

(02:14:37):

Right. But like now you're starting to talk to the higher upper echelons and really getting to understand the problem set and then selling the mission. And this is where, you know, that was my bread and butter was I might not understand every single detail of why we're doing the mission. I might not understand every single detail of how we're conducting the sense of activity, but managing those personnel and taking the information that I'm provided and selling the next mission.

(02:15:07):

That was my bread and butter. You say selling the next mission. Does that mean getting everybody on the same page? Well, yeah. I mean, you know, you walk it, it's you really sell, you know, it's it's the same thing as if I walk to you. I'm looking you in the eyes and you have the face and confidence that I know what I'm talking about.

Dan Parks (02:15:23):

You know what I mean? Like, commanders want to know they're going to make the right decision. And it was up to us to put that picture together. So that they could make the right decision. You know, you're selling you're you're you're literally selling, you know, the information that you have that you believe to be true so that that commander can put his rank on the line because that's what he's doing, you know, whether it be to drop a bomb to send a team and, you know, on a targeting mission, to send a team in on a training mission like he you're getting, you're getting this is the goal.

(02:15:57):

And then you're developing the mission or you're getting them right and the mission, not the goal. And the intelligence. And then you develop the mission and then you sell the mission. Is that well, you oversimplify it. Yeah. Oversimplify is like, you know, we receive our goals from the commanders. Commanders tell us our goals are basically fed from the common desired commander.

(02:16:14):

So to very high upper echelon, they provide us a goal. We say, okay, in order to execute that goal, we got to gain this information, this information, these teams, these locations, in order to reach an end state. Right. And so, like all the moving pieces are put tied together. It's pretty substantial, you know, and then getting them to trust that all the way the ground level, the information and they're basing their decision off of is to be true.

(02:16:43):

You know. Right. Like how often is it not true. All the time. Yeah. Oh yeah. All the time. You know, you multi-discipline intelligence is what's required in order to you, you know, act on a target. We don't do it off of one one. It's got to be corroborated from multiple. That's right. We don't do it off of one avenue more, more often than not, if you're doing off a single event, it could be wrong.

(02:17:09):

You know what I mean? If you have multiple events, intelligence, multiple intelligence venues providing you the same information, most likely it's true. It all just depends on where the information's coming from. So now you get to see how the way we gather intelligence is used in order to execute on various missions. Right. And you're getting to take part.

Justin McMillen (02:17:29):

So are you getting intelligence and then even questioning like, is this how much can I stand by this? Or. Yeah, sure. You know, like I'm the I guess you can consider me. All right. I have a commander's base on his decisions off of everything that I'm feed him. I'm like the I'm doing the grunt work, if you will, of talking to the guy that might have talked to the human intelligence guy, you know, talking to the guy that might gather the signals portion of it or or whatever it may be.

Dan Parks (02:17:53):

It's like trying to paint that picture with a team, with a team of experts that are sitting in a room with me and trying to come up and paint this picture for our commander so that we can move out on it. You know what I mean? It's complex. It's coming. Ever. Did you ever find a situation where you were like, this is wrong, and it could have created a terrible outcome?

(02:18:18):

Yeah. So without going into. I know you can't. Yeah. Beyond that. So, so that I'll tell you. So after that, I came back then I was a battalion, manage all sorts of activities for battalion. But, like, going back to battalion is you're in an operational theater, you're controlling operations, you're making decisions for commanders, and you're moving pieces on a chessboard, you know, towards an end goal.

(02:18:43):

And that end goal actually matters. And then you come back to a component command you're like, well, what? I you know, what am I, what am I doing this for? I'm providing troops back to those operational commanders. Being able to see behind the scenes was great. But there's been times, you know, those have been times I've been the only person at the table that says, hold on just a second.

(02:19:05):

You know, we there was a coup, for instance, in an African country. And during the coup, typically any time, you know, the president is overran by, you know, some other, I won't say governing figure by any figure. You know, that somebody militant group that, you know, the people stand behind, they overrun the presidency. It happens all the time in, Africa, all of Africa.

(02:19:29):

It's the story of Africa. It literally is. Yeah. It's the story of Africa. Well, because of our democracy, we don't support that. Right. And so anytime a coup happens, it's automatic. We pull our troops out of, you know, said country until we can regroup and, you know, figure out what's going on and so on and so forth. I remember sitting around the table and a coup had just occurred, and we had SOF, you know, SOF, we do we do missions that other people don't want to do.

(02:20:01):

You know, we we do the sensitive missions. And we had SOF in that particular country at the time, and they were the ones that were feeding the information, you know, to the co com commander, the Africom commander. And like that was our only eyes and ears on the ground inside that country. And I remember, you know, we were trying to paint this huge, you know, profile and, you know, intelligence picture of you know, what we think might happen and where we think this might be going.

(02:20:31):

And I remember, you know, it came up to, we're going to pull all U.S. troops out. The conventional troops are already on the process of leaving. And you only had two SOF individuals in the country, the only eyes and ears, right? Except for like, embassy personnel. But now you're relying on you know, the defense attache, which his job is to work for the ambassador.

(02:20:51):

So, you know, you're you have the military side of the house, and then you have the diplomatic side of the House, and, you know, the embassies is more on the diplomatic side. On the military side, we only had two source individuals. And I remember this going around. It started getting dangerous. And and during the coup, it looked like, you know, all the riots and stuff was starting to collapse on the city where these guys, raiders or were they.

(02:21:14):

Yeah, they were Marine raiders. And, and I knew them personally. And I remember how cool it was at the time. It wasn't cool, you know, because, like, you have these riots that are starting to collapse on the inner cities, and we were worried on whether or not they would be able to get out of the country and win was going to be too late.

(02:21:30):

Are they in a base? Are they in the embassy at that point? Right now, we typically live out in town. At this point in time, we had collapsed back to the embassy and they're like the only two that have the ties into the that the ambassador, they're talking to multi-discipline agencies, and they're feeding the commanders. And it came up to like, we have to pull U.S. troops out.

(02:21:49):

And I remember going around the horn and I was like, do we pull them out or do they stay in? This was, you know, it was critical time to make a decision, because within hours we were about to lose the airport like there was no way to get them out afterwards. And, I remember going around the table and it was like, pull them out, pull them out, pull them out, pull them out.

(02:22:08):

And this is like, colonel, colonel, colonel, you know, one star colonel all going around the commanders, roundtable. And I'm like the lowly Gunny seem to be master sergeant. And I remember, you know, raising my hand being like, sir, I can't agree with you. I can't agree with you pulling your only eyes and ears out of that country.

(02:22:30):

Like where us off. They are on the ground doing exactly what we have asked of them to do. They're providing the exact information that you need to hear. If we pull them out, we lose our eyes and ears. And. Yes. Is it difficult? Yes. Is it risky? Absolutely. But that's what pays the bills. You know what I mean.

(02:22:49):

Government. I say this all the time with my buddies, you know, like the government used to pay me to show up the government pays us off to show up when it matters, you know, and I remember telling them that. And without that. And he was like, you know what? I absolutely agree. We're going to leave them in-country. And like, how fulfilling.

(02:23:08):

Like, dude, I just knew that I was about to get my ass reamed when I got back, you know, and instead I got a I got a bunch of A2 boys, you know, like, hey, that was ballsy. Like, you just slapped your nuts on the table, you know, and laid it out like, you know, I'm lower ranking than anybody in this room talking to a bunch of commanders.

(02:23:28):

You know, the end of the table's a two star. And I just remember how rewarding it was, you know, for me to be like. No, like, why are we pulling our only two individuals? That your eyes and ears that are special operations forces? It's in the definition. We should leave them in, sir. And he agreed. I just I was like, man, that was a moment.

(02:23:46):

You know, that's a ballsy move, though, is what happens if some shit went down with them. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. But you know, I mean, then you knew. That's right. Yeah. Yeah I knew them. And to that was like your biggest guns in the country. Right. Like you have you know, the embassy always has some Marines that are guarding the base.

(02:24:04):

These are young Marines. Men like these are the two biggest guns in country. We have no other troops in this country in particular, you know. So, like, who's holding down the embassy and managing security and, you know, like scary thought. Yeah. You know, it's not like there's a bunch of contractors sitting over there or anything like that, like you're dealing with a bunch of young Marines.

(02:24:24):

And so they took charge. It was really cool. It's really cool to be a part of that. But if you if you pull them out in the embassy, got attacked and there was nobody there to defend them, that would have been horrific. It would have been horrific. Yeah, it would have been horrific for us not to have eyes and ears and then, you know, not having eyes and ears, we'd be making knee jerk decisions.

(02:24:44):

And we could have been too late. Could have been magashi. What's the deal with Africa? It's like the just a constant. Again, the I don't want to speak for the world, but just the general view is that there's just a bunch of kids with guns and a lot of it. So is though. It's so is it depends on what country you go to.

(02:25:04):

Yeah. But it's just there's no rhyme or reason. It's just a bunch of like warlords kind of running the show. Yeah. Is that pretty much the. It depends on what part of Africa, you know, you start getting into Central Africa. It's absolutely the case. It's a bunch of warlords. Think of gangsters here in the United States. You know, it's like Compton.

(02:25:24):

I'm. Yeah, I'm sure there's Compton. I don't know, southern California very well, but I'm pretty positive that I could find where the gangsters live, you know, and they kind of run that location. It's the same thing that happens in Africa, you know, nobody's paying attention to Central Africa most of the time. Right? You know, and it expands into other countries, western, western Africa.

(02:25:44):

You know, Burkina Faso was interesting, but I don't even know where that is.

(02:25:53):

Western. You know, you got the Horn of Africa. It's like the western portion of Africa. Okay. That's pretty cool. Country too. But, you know, like, you start getting out into the, the outskirts like I was talking about, and you move from like the first world, you know, type mentality to like, the third world mentality. And he who is strongest is king.

(02:26:14):

You know, there's a lot of democracies over there for sure. But you know, that's look at Africa is the story of Africa occurs over and over and over. And all that is, is warlords taking over. You know what? What are some of the craziest things you saw over there or amazing things? What's charming about Africa? What was horrifying?

(02:26:33):

Well, the culture and the culture in Africa is amazing. I just love being in Africa and getting to see all the different types of people, how it changes from Tunisia, where you have typically the Muslim faith and then, you know, Senegal, you know, how do I put that? And then you start getting to the African American regions of, of true Africa and like the people, the people change and how loving they were, you know, and getting to see the various locations with the different animals like Burkina Faso, crocodiles, crazy, right?

(02:27:12):

Like this. So Burkina Faso always floods. And one of the cool things I did in Burkina Faso was like, we got to feed the crocodiles, you know, and he's like 15ft crocodiles. These are big dogs. Yeah, yeah. And so they had set up, you know, they had lions. This was like a place where everybody would go to see the crocodiles, you know?

(02:27:30):

But I remember walking and, you know, we throw these whole chickens in before they even hit the water, like, bam, you know, the crocodiles, you can't even see him in the water. Well, you know, Burkina Faso would flood. And then next thing you know, like there's a crocodile in the street, there's a crocodile in the slew on the side of the street, you know, and like, dude, it's nuts.

(02:27:49):

It's just unregulated eating people. I don't think they actually, you know, I think they would if you got close to them. I think a lot of people are smarter, you know, they're smarter than that. But, yeah, I mean, I think they talk about kids getting attacked every single year. I don't want to mess with the crocodiles, man.

Justin McMillen (02:28:06):

Like they're rough. But, yeah, just being able to see the different cultures from the different regions. Africa is a huge place. You know, the Denver desert region is completely different than, you know, the jungle regions. And, yeah, the it's just anything there that made you, like, completely question humanity or like, what the hell do you think?

(02:28:29):

Terrible maiming. Yeah. Maiming. Yeah. So like a lot of these warlords that go in Africa and I don't know how these kids get involved, but like, you know, you see, think of the guy on the street corner like they these people in Burkina Faso is one of them. They will maim individuals so that they go on the side of the road to make money, you know, and like just the fighting, the way they fight is different.

(02:28:59):

You know, it's not necessarily guns like, you see, I've seen people with acid on their face. I've seen arms and legs cut off, you know, like other like machetes. Yes. Yeah. And it's like, man, it's a whole nother. That's a, that's an interesting sight when you see it, you know, it's like, how can somebody do this to another person?

(02:29:19):

How can somebody do that to another person and be comfortable, you know, and especially like the warlords in Central Africa, like you see it on movies. It's a real thing. You know, it's a real thing. And like when you see that up front, close and personal and you realize this isn't was the movie. Leonardo DiCaprio, the diamonds, blood Diamond, it's not a movie anymore.

(02:29:41):

Like this is real life. Sure. And you know, it's just it'll blow your mind. You know, it'll blow your mind. It's it's. Yeah. It's crazy how far that's a part of the world that people don't talk about too much. And how how,

(02:30:01):

Just destitute. The people are like, how far behind and how sick? There's so many people die really young. And there's a lot of terrible things that happen there. Do you think you will ever find stability? I mean certain parts of Africa obviously have. Sure. But I mean the vast majority of Africa is pretty. Africa is going to stay Africa.

(02:30:21):

Yeah. I don't see it ever getting stability you know. Well I mean there's the you know China's starting to get involved and Russia starting to get involved. Whether it be contracting groups China man they bought up tons of land in Africa. You know, maybe maybe on the One Belt One Road initiative which basically connecting western Africa to the eastern or actually opposite eastern Africa to western Africa, you know, they're buying tons of land up.

(02:30:47):

Maybe, maybe they could, you know, democracies. No, they're not going to democracy. I modernize, yeah, modernize Africa. But Africa is so damn big it's impossible interests there. Like, I mean, in your specific area. What's the breeding ground? Right. You know, for a while, Africa is still is it's the breeding ground for terrorist networks. Okay. You know, that's, al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda, ISIS.

(02:31:12):

They all train inside Africa, and then they have their own internal terrorist organizations, which is, you know, a terrorist is a terrorist. So, you know, it behooves us to go and, you know, assess the Tunisians, you know, with their terrorist networks that operate through the mountains. Because if we don't know, then we're just going to find them inside, you know, either Middle Eastern countries where we used to be located or we find them in the homeland.

Dan Parks (02:31:35):

It's a breeding ground and we can't control the breeding ground. Africa is just too big of a place, you know what I mean? You're talking about places in Africa that still can't even be seen by satellite. You know, like, I think Elon Musk is trying to set up a mesh network eventually that has signal across all of Africa.

(02:31:53):

But like the the, the very like desert regions and stuff like that, it's we can't control that. You know, the in in America shouldn't necessarily have to control it. We control it in a way by helping, you know, those locations help themselves. What's the difference between al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda and what's the is there big differences or. No, I think they're all I think they're all sympathizers.

Justin McMillen (02:32:20):

It's, you know, more separated by location, you know, separated by region. You know, I think the funding streams are the same. The viewpoints are the same. Do you know anything about it? There's that stuff in the news lately about Christians being mass executed in Africa. Have you heard about this? I have not, it doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't.

(02:32:42):

Yeah. It doesn't surprise me. I mean, a highly, highly Muslim culture inside Africa, you know? But again, it's it's extremism, you know, it's extremism. It's not all Africa. It seems like they're just they're like countries and systems that are just barely holding on. It's like, patched together, ruled by money and corruption, you know? Yeah. And it's like, just, everybody's paying everybody off and.

(02:33:11):

Yeah, be crazy to be a citizen of one of those countries. Oh, yeah. And, you know, completely different than the United States. Yeah. And corruption, it does run and runs rampant, right, Reverend? Because there's no regular regulatory function. You know, I interviewed a guy in here who was born in Nigeria, and he tells a whole story of his dad.

(02:33:32):

He's actually his dad was, it's one that just prints and, Oh, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. His last name is added, like, to you, which is like, it has something to do with I don't I don't want to mess it up. So I'm not going to. But he's an amazing guy. But he came over here with his mother.

(02:33:50):

His dad had made a ton of money. Like, he basically grew up very wealthy in Africa. But then the government seized everything that he had. And his dad passed away shortly after and left his mother, who was from Brooklyn, again, with nothing and kids to raise. And so she ended up having to go back to the States, and they went from like having chauffeurs and stuff to, like having absolutely nothing and starting over this super interesting guy.

(02:34:19):

Yeah. At some point I'll introduce you to. Sure. He's, Yeah, he's he ended up in the South community, too. He was a seal. But yeah, he was he was like a troublemaker growing up and then decided to go to the military. Yeah. So you're back? Yeah. Yeah. Now he does a bunch of stuff for human trafficking.

(02:34:38):

So he works, and he's a film producer, film producer two and a writer. Yeah, and a couple of books. And he's, he just, he wrote a film about organ harvesting. It's crazy. So, yeah, he has a short on line that's just nuts. But he has interesting stories about Africa, too. You two actually would probably.

(02:34:59):

I was about to say we would drive. I could get down on target and some human trafficking, you know, talk to him. What's the, what's the contracting agency? Darkhorse. I think that's maybe the one that he's working with. Or he was. I'm not sure. Hey. I'm in. You know, there's a there was a movie made, Sound of Freedom.

(02:35:19):

And he he worked with that guy. Okay, so. Yeah, but he's his big thing is he's like, you know, human trafficking is real. And it's terrible when he goes, but no one's really talking about organ harvesting and that. Yes, a really big deal. Yeah. And, and he's trying to stop that. So and he the movie that he wrote is really, really good and he'll, it's just about these guys that go and just take down these.

(02:35:45):

It's all for soft guys. Yeah. And stuff and yeah. Yeah. Africa man I haven't been there. That's one place I'd like to go. Yeah. At some point. So you after that what you do. So you're doing that. You're doing a lot of the intelligence side of things. Yeah. Special activities. Yeah. So then let's see Battalion went from battalion to actually Battalion takes me to like 2018.

Dan Parks (02:36:14):

And then the most fulfilling job that I've had in the military is 2019. Me and my wife at the time we chose that, we wanted to go over to the T SoC. Their special operations command I wanted to work for SoC Africa, Special Operations Command Africa. And, you know, one, I had been studying Africa for a long time.

(02:36:35):

I was involved in operations. I knew a lot of people inside, you know, the T SoC inside. So. Com I had been selling, you know, the missions for quite some time. And I was like, man, this would really be cool. I understood the sense of activities picture. And, and I was coming up on the later stages of my career, so it was like, hey, we haven't traveled.

(02:36:59):

You know, that's something we didn't cover, right? Ma SoC is only located on the East coast. We had a location on the West Coast and we shut that down years ago. I don't remember the exact year. But we collapse and brought everybody into the East Coast. And so somehow, miraculously, throughout my career, you know, I was stationed in Campbell June and to to from the very beginning of my career.

(02:37:22):

Then I wanted to go, you know, we went to Second force. I was security baby there stayed. That's on the East coast. Then more SoCs to the pipelines on the East Coast. Then my first team was the East Coast. Most people don't know this. There's a first, second, third Ranger Battalion. But at the time there was a fourth Raider Battalion way back in the day.

(02:37:43):

This is when Ma SoC was still trying to like, figure things out more East Coast, you know, and then the regiment is East Coast. My whole career was on the East Coast, and somehow I was just able to remain on the East Coast, until I chose to go to Germany. So I had that conversation with my ex-wife.

(02:38:02):

I'm like, honey, if you want to, if you want to see the world, I've gotten to see the world at this point, you know? But if you want to see the world, like, now, the time, like, we have an opportunity to go for Europe. And I remember calling the monitor, who's who's the person that controls all the enlisted forces and locations that they may go to?

(02:38:21):

And, you know, I was like, hey, if there's a spot open for me, I would love to go to SoC Africa. I think that I would be extremely beneficial inside the J 35, which is, you know, current future operations. And you know, given my background, you know, I've managed I've managed current operations for the Marine Raider Regiment.

(02:38:42):

I've been the operations chief for all of Northwest Africa, and I've got all the points of contact. And I manage the sense of activities profile for all of Africa. That Ma SoC was involved in. And, like, I think I'd be really good at this. And so one day long, I got a phone call and said, hey, pack your shit.

(02:38:58):

You know why you're going? You're going to Germany. And so I was stationed out of Germany for three years. Back then, you know, the new India's national defense strategy, it was in the process of getting written, and it or it just come out, you know, and, you know, nobody knew what global power competition was. So I started out focused on Northwest Africa when I first got to Germany, underneath the theater Special Operations Command.

(02:39:30):

And it quickly turned into, you know, National Defense Strategy says, hey, you know, Russia and China is still a thing we've been focused on, you know, the guy for so long that we have to relook at our relook at our roots, really, because, you know, that's what it was all about. You know, previously. And they like, you know, we don't know what global power competition means.

(02:39:49):

But Dan, we're pretty sure that it's going to be, something in the sense of activities realm. And so I was a one man show for a while and took over the global power competition, you know, cell inside the J 35, which opened up huge doors. You know, now I'm continuing to, you know, manage the intelligence scene, you know, but I have large teams, you know, of intelligence professionals that are that are feeding, you know, information.

(02:40:19):

And that's where I started selling. Going back to the selling piece is like, you know, what's our big moves? I'm now with the SoC commander. So that's a two star command. And up the hill is the four star command of Africom Africa Command. And you know, the t SoC commander is the lead representative for all a SOF in that location that provides, you know, recommendations to the four star general.

(02:40:48):

Well, who does the T SoC look for? He looks at his team. That's focus on the region. So nobody knew a global power competition was. But they were pretty sure it was sense of activities. And they're like, damn, you're going to stand up this section inside the J 35. Mind you, the J 35 at the time was like 15 people, right?

(02:41:05):

The section one dude, one dude, figure out what that meant. And, so I partnered with a great friend of mine, Alan, you know, Africom and.

(02:41:18):

I had ears wide open, you know, because he was fairly intelligent on, you know, the National Defense Strategy and the direction the nation was going at the time and why was important to Africa. And I just started Absorbing Man. I started absorbing, and we started putting together, you know, various missions and things. That was all towards, you know, this strategic outlook and being able to sell that, you know, to the two star admirals and the commanders.

(02:41:48):

Man, I was great at it. You know, I was like really good at it, you know, and, I guess that's because I can walk into a table and I can speak confidently and I, you know, I understand I don't talk about things. I don't try to sell you things unless I can, you know, at least bullshit my way through it enough to make you believe, you know?

(02:42:10):

And to me, I'm such a conversationalist. Anyway. Like sitting across from a congressman, sitting across from a commander, sitting across from me. And, you know, at the table right now, I'm equally as comfortable, right? You know, so here's, like the gunny, they used to call me the Gunny gunnery sergeant major is what I got. I got a title once.

(02:42:26):

Right? But, like, here's the gunny that's at the table, you know, trying to figure out, like, this new little, niche inside SoC Africa. And I freaking loved it, which, you know, quickly turned down. I was there for, like, nine months, one of the sergeant major. So for there's a sense of activities wing of the t soc.

(02:42:46):

And they needed a new and senior enlisted, to take over. And so by working through, you know, something that didn't even exist inside the j35, it opened an opportunity. And then I was selected as a senior enlisted leader for this organization. That's attached to the t SoC, and I thrived. You know, I thrive now. I finally had a seat at the table.

(02:43:11):

Now I was sitting across commanders as they're consultant, as the expert in all things strategic competition. Right. As the friggin senior leader, of of any sense of activity that's happening on the continent, Africa. And, like, business was good. You know, I think that's the best way to describe it. Like, we were busy organization, you know, and here I am as the leader of the organization with, you know, my GS 15 director that trusted me, you know, just based off of what he had seen me accomplish, you know, in the short period of time, he had a big say in it.

(02:43:48):

And I was hand-selected to go and be the senior enlisted leader of this organization. And now, now. And I'm moving the chess pieces right now. I get to see behind the curtain. Finally, I kind of understand where America wants to go and how do we get there, you know? And not only that, I'm not just a pawn, you know.

(02:44:09):

I'm. I'm the freaking the queen. I guess you know, mojo for the most moves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(02:44:19):

You know, I had a I had a king, but I have the most moves, you know, I was able to maneuver. I was able to maneuver in that space of politics and government organizations and, you know, military personnel and commanders. And, and I was able to do it efficiently, you know. Yeah. And, I mean, what a blast.

(02:44:41):

I'm not that you didn't work hard, but a blessed career. Sure that that story is like like perfect. Yeah, I, I, I thrived in it, you know, I guess is the best way I explain. I stayed, senior enlisted leader for two years. Two and years and some change before I had to come back in 22. And you stay put in Germany, or did you jump back and forth?

(02:45:01):

No, I stayed, I mean, we came back and visited, you know, Tampa, Florida a lot, Washington, DC a lot. You know. But now my entire family, I moved them over to Stuttgart and we were there for three years, and I loved it. Well, she loved it. You know, I forget Remington was in the picture back then. You know, but, no, it was it was really cool not only to be a leader of an organization that, you know, I admired so much, but also to be able to travel Europe the way that I was able to travel during those three years.

(02:45:32):

You know, I had a cell phone attached to my hip 24 over seven. But, you know, me and my ex-wife, we were able to travel all over Europe. I think the only thing, the only place really we missed was like Croatia. I'd love to go back to and Eastern Europe. I like to go and visit a couple locations, but, you know, I got my fill of Italy and France and Greece and it was just a it was a really good time.

(02:45:55):

Belgium. When how long were you with her at that point? I that see 2019. We were probably 16 years. Yeah, 16, 16 years. 16 years. So you were back in high school? No. Now we started we started dating. So we met on a blind date. When I went over to security platoon, my buddy Bama at the time, he had a girlfriend.

(02:46:21):

And the girl and his girlfriend's best friend was my wife, Morgan. Okay. And, so we met on a blind date, had no idea, and ended up, you know, hitting it off and getting married. So we got married in 2007. So 19, 2004 or 22,005. 21, 2006. So I was, what, 2122 when we got when we got married?

(02:46:46):

And she, she stuck around for a long time. She did. Yeah. God bless her. You know what I mean? I'm a real pain in the ass, you know? Yeah. She stuck around through it all. She was there for every deployment except for Iraq, which is pretty amazing, you know? And you you, You guys get close in Germany?

(02:47:06):

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of the reason we went to Germany, we can touch it. I don't want to get emotional on this thing, you know what I mean? But, Yeah, we a lot of reason we went to Germany was, to get closer because my deployment cycle was so busy, you know what I mean?

(02:47:26):

Like, we had never at that point in time, we had never, like, lived together for any length of duration. You know, if you think about it like a year here, when I was at the regiment, we lived together for, you know, three years, I think at the end of three years. Where you ready to pull each other's hair out, you know.

(02:47:44):

But after that, she's like, you need to get your ass back on deployment, like, let's go. You know what I mean? I need my free space. And, so, yeah, she was there for every single deployment. Took her to Germany. We got super close in Germany, you know, but all good things come to an end, you know? And coming back from working at such a strategic level and moving chess pieces on a chess board and being of purpose, you know, coming back from that and coming back to Mars.

(02:48:18):

Not that I don't love my organization because I absolutely do. But, you know, it's a component or I mean, it's a yeah, it's a component. It's a feeder force for the operations. MARSOC doesn't control the operations. We just provide the forces. You know, the mission of component commanders may and train. Equip? The mission of a commander is operations.

(02:48:37):

You know, the mission of Africom commanders operations. And so, after moving all those chess pieces on a chess board for as long as I did in the rank that I was, you know, at the level that I was playing at to come back to Mars. So I had to take a big step back when I got back in 22.

(02:48:55):

Bad. Yeah, yeah. And that frickin sucked. You know, it's like balls to the walls. Everything's going on. There's ten missions in my head that I'm managing, you know what I mean? Or providing guidance on or, you know, just think of a normal schedule. Okay? I got this and brief this. I got to meet with the agency, you know, at 10:00, I've got, you know, meeting with the team commander at 11.

(02:49:19):

I got a meeting with up the hill, 13. Like my clock was always like this, and it was always about moving a chess piece on a chess board, like, you know, greater than a pawn. And then to come back to more. So now you're back to providing the pawns, you know, and like, fallen, you know, my director was a 15, so that's an oh six equivalent.

(02:49:40):

You know, the consultant. I was extensive activities consultant for a two star admiral and a four star commander. And so, like, coming back to a world where I got this captain, that's, 23 years old, you know what I mean? And he's the team leader. If you will. You know, not that he wasn't super smart guy. I still talk to him to this day, you know what I mean?

(02:50:03):

It's just a huge step back, and it was, like, not a breath of fresh air for me. It was like, frickin. You have taken this tiger, you know, that's been able to maneuver all over a space. You know, that's, you know, I mean, I was we were controlling the entire continent of Africa, you know, and we were doing strategic operations that it wasn't just Africa.

(02:50:25):

Right? It was for the nation. Sure. Was tied to a national defense strategy to move from that and then contain him back into a little small box with, you know, dude, so you go nuts. So I was going nuts and I became a pain in the ass, you know, and Morgan and now I'm doing that and we're clashing, you know, like, we were clashing before deployment cycle.

(02:50:45):

After the deployment cycle, we were clashing. She's a strong woman.

(02:50:53):

It's okay. Man, there's no reason. There's nothing you, me to show and so much of your strength. It's okay for you to show some of your fucking heart, your human. Well, she's a strong woman, and, I came back and kind of fucked that up, you know? Yeah, but that's all right. It's all right. I still love her.

(02:51:15):

She still loves me. You know, it's just in a different capacity. And, Yeah. Coming back from Germany. Coming back from Germany was tough. You know, I was constant move and, coming back to a dead stop. Yeah. I was literally driving myself crazy, you know, I think, you know, I came back, I was a sense of activities director for, you know, the Marine Raider Regiment, but it just wasn't the same.

(02:51:42):

It wasn't the same. It was to the point where it was time for me to start retiring. And, you know, dealing with, you know, a soon to be separation. You know, I remember as soon as we got back, you know, God grace us with our son. But I remember during the pregnancy, we mentioned divorce more times, and we had our entire marriage, you know, we had a new house that we came back to that was a complete wreck.

(02:52:10):

I was a complete wreck because, you know, you took this warfighter, this operations guy, and put him back and, you know, not managing operations. And I just found your calling. I found my calling. But then I got home and got bored, you know what I mean? And so, you know, we came back. I had bought a house while we were in Germany in 2021, and I got the house redone floor to ceiling.

(02:52:31):

Well, the contractor that subcontracted the contractor subcontracted the contractor, and the house was a wreck. And so there was a lot of work that had to be done. Morgan got pregnant instantly. When I first got back, my dad.

(02:52:46):

My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's while I was in Germany. And, then. So I'm dealing with Alzheimer's. I'm dealing with the house. I'm dealing with. You know, our relationship is kind of going in the tank. Morgan's pregnant. There's just a lot of things going on there. You know, it became very difficult for the both of us, you know, and it was constantly, you know, bickering back and forth.

(02:53:12):

And, you know, that's kind of normal. The first, first child. Yeah. Yeah. Really is I mean, even even I'm not taking away from the absolute hell that your head went through to go from working at that level to this level. But it's might give you some comfort to know that, I mean, when, when my wife and I, I mean, my disclosure here, when we had our first kid, when she got pregnant, it was I was like, oh, no, we're not going to work out.

(02:53:41):

It was terror. We're fighting constantly. I was sleeping in the garage. She was breaking shit. She tore the cabinets off the bathroom. And so, I mean, she was going crazy. Oh, yeah. And someone told me once that women do that to test us. And it's like an instinctual thing, right? They want to know that we're going to stick around.

(02:54:00):

So they'll they'll dispute the push. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some natural parts of them for that, you know, it is. Yeah. And, but we had a lot of things stacked against us. And, you know, I'm a human being. Yeah, I'm human being. And, you know, well, you know the story because, you know, the same person that told you the story is the same person that told me the story.

(02:54:22):

Right? I'm I am the greatest war fighter that I know as far as, like, strategy and, you know, there's some great out there that I can. They're still my mentors. Don't get me wrong. I'm not conceited by any way. But, like, I know warfighting and I know how to move chess pieces on a chess board. And when I came back and everything went to a standstill, my brain was just constantly going, going, going.

(02:54:44):

You know what I mean? And I started abusing booze. So then I'm this, you know, great war fighter, and now I've got this war that's going on inside me that I don't necessarily understand. I'm not fulfilled anymore, you know? I'm not happy. I got super depressed when we first came back. And even though I was working for the Marine Raider Regiment, and I was thriving in that position, by the way, I was crushing it, I'm sure, it just wasn't.

(02:55:12):

Yeah, it just was not fulfilling the itch, you know? And then you bring all this infighting, me and Morgan in the house and so on and so forth. Right. It just it was a clash and, you know what was my escape? I couldn't turn my brain off. My escape was muse, you know, and I started hitting that hard.

Justin McMillen (02:55:30):

And, you know, I'm human. It is. It is what it is. I look back at it and, you drink a lot. Before that, we drank. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we drink. Did you ever drink to to high? And if you just always shut the fuck up. No. Let's go for it. Did did you drink to to dodge your feelings or was it just drinking, like with the boys at night or out of fire?

Dan Parks (02:55:54):

No, I never drank like that. You know what I mean? I was Marines born in a bar. You know, we're heavy drinkers. Anyway, there was times before we went to Germany that I was drinking heavy, you know, and I had to put it in check. I had to put it in check. And one of the reasons that me and Morgan wanted to go to Germany was because, you know, it was the same crowd, it was the same weekends, it was the same weekdays, it was same.

(02:56:16):

You know what I mean? And again, we weren't fulfilled. We wanted to gain a relationship that was closer together. And here I am. You know, I was boozing pretty hard before I went to Germany. Went to Germany. Things are great, you know what I mean? It's interesting because it's not just the fact that you changed jobs. Yeah. You were living in Europe with this woman that you love away from all the other things, and you got to feel what it was like to have this whole picture.

(02:56:44):

Yes. It wasn't just the job changes so that you came home and everything went back to the way it was. That's right. Yeah, yeah. And I remember talking about it like she was terrified that was going to happen, you know, and went right back to the, the same, the same thing, you know, and at first I was doing good.

(02:57:03):

But you know, it's a fucking base. And, you know, like I said, I'm a great war fighter until I'm fighting a war with myself. And, like, now I'm playing my own tactics against my own tactics, you know what I'm saying? And I. Hey, I'm human. You know, I found myself in a freaking miserable hole. It cost me marriage.

(02:57:23):

Yeah, yeah, but, you know, hey, we bounce back. Just so you know what I mean? We bounce back. Cost me a marriage, and, And, I don't think it would change. You know, I'm not 100% sure if it would change. We were arguing about a lot of different things. Booze was, booze was a tough one when we first came back.

(02:57:44):

And then you had booze and everything that was going on. You know, we just reached a point where we lost respect for each other, and. And we both decided that for the sake of our son, it's best that we move on our our way. Right? Like, you don't want to raise a kid in a house that's constantly fighting against each other, you know?

(02:58:02):

Of course, how long ago was that? Let's see. My my divorce finalized is in February. So I'd say a year and some change. Yeah. And again, I'm human, you know, I don't want to paint. I had a great career. How long you been out of the military? I've only been out since June 30th, 2025. Yeah.

(02:58:23):

Of 2025, June 30th, 2025. And I'll tell you, my last year was hell, you know, like, so this book. Right. I can feel it all fucking hell. Yeah. You know, like here I am, August of 24. Me and Morgan got in a fight. I went out in town, we got boozed up, you know, and, like, I barely remember it, but it ended up into, you know, basically a Mexican standoff with, you know, the police department in my cul de sac out front of my house.

(02:58:49):

Right. And like, it's just terrible. But what that started was, you know, it highlighted my name. It highlighted my name in a negative light. Right. And there was politics, you know, you call it is what you, you want, you know, there's people listening on this thing that would be like they either agree or disagree. There's a lot of politics.

(02:59:11):

And there was a my name meant something, right? And now it's like highlighted up in the upper echelons. Like we have to do something to Dan. And it sparked with everything else going on, a series of, you know, mistakes that I made, that ultimately ended in, I had a great command that protected me, you know, and they made sure I got to retirement, you know?

(02:59:34):

Of course. I mean, you can't take away what, your 19 years of all of what you just. Yeah. Yeah, we've had a good conversation. Sure. And that's a beautiful career. Yeah. Of 19 years. I don't think that, In August. It makes sense, man. Yeah. And all of this makes complete sense. And why would. I'm sorry to say, but why would Morgan want to be with you when you come home?

(03:00:00):

And you you don't even want to be with you. You're fighting in a fucking war with yourself, right? So until you get that straightened out. Yeah, that's off the table. Yeah. I mean, I know it's done, but it's like, that's not even. Of course. Yeah. I mean, you can feel the shift just in the way you talk about it, man.

(03:00:16):

The difference between the pride and I mean but that's the thing is you got you're just getting started. You got. Oh, I'm just getting started. He can't slow me down. You know what I mean? So there's a there is an ending to this story and that is, you know, today is when we all or when we both end up on the ground, it's not come for a long time.

(03:00:33):

Yeah. Ending to this story here today. Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you eventually the chaos starts. I'm sober today. And I'm thinking clearly. And I'm Dan Parks again, and I'm the strategic thinker. The marketer, the advertiser, the freaking. I'm all the things, you know what I mean? I feel clearer than I've ever felt, you know,

(03:00:57):

It's unfortunate. Say me and my wife, my ex-wife. We're not fighting anymore, right? You know, and, you know, there was things that were said in between years of our arguing back and forth that you can't take back. You can't take it back. And I understand why we went our separate ways. And I've grown at peace with it, you know.

(03:01:18):

So I'm building a whole new me now, you know, I'm building a whole civilian me, you know, and it's based off an extremely successful career. Yeah. We had a little hiccup at the end you know, but we got to retirement. I am human you know I admit my flaws and mistakes. What am I going to do. I'm going to be a war fighter and I'm gonna stand back up and I'm on a frickin attack at full speed, full throttle.

(03:01:43):

Damn right. Like that's a nickname that has been with me for years and years. And I see clear now, and I feel good. And, you know, it was time for me to get out of the military. Absolutely. Was it? You only had an option. The only option was to get back up in the in the ladder, you know, and drinking caused me to not be able to do that.

(03:02:05):

So it was time to leave the military, you know, I had a great career. I feel frickin great and young, too. So, I mean, what you were telling me about the you're getting up to, I mean, your level of, access and understanding consulting. Yeah. I mean, you could work in DC, and then, I mean, that bad word, but lobbyist side of things, I mean, there's your higher bill in a hundred different ways.

(03:02:32):

Sure. It was just a matter of I think you choosing the right place. Yeah. To position that. So I think it empowers me. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, I could go to the contracting gig, but, you know, my money is in. And consulting operations director of strategic operations, trustee. Just, influencer life coach. Like bring it.

(03:02:53):

I'll give you all the things, you know what I mean? If I can say anything to the people listening out there is like, dude, I'm human, you know what I mean? And like, frickin substances will get the best of you. Like, in fact, go ahead and put my information out there. Call this podcast. Like, if you guys, if you find yourself in a situation where you just need help or you feel like you can't talk to nobody, I will offer myself.

(03:03:16):

Right. And I'll I'll show you a different path. Yeah. The that I found, you know what I mean? There's there's a lot of opportunity out there for me, and I'm fucking ready to attack, man. Like I'm ready. I'm ready to attack. You know, I've seen, I've seen. I mean, I've seen your stories several times. Not your story, but I think the guy that has your training and background is that, I mean, the transition sucks.

(03:03:42):

I know, I know tons of guys who've done it just because, I mean, military is so dialed in, even as much of it is over dialed, right? Yeah. That's why it's bureaucratic and a shit show or like a nightmare sometimes because it's some slow and just bureaucracy. The civilian world is just wild West, and so that that jumps hard.

(03:04:02):

Yeah, I think I've seen it over and over. It's like, wait a minute, where system, where's the rule, where's the. And like when you realize that there isn't one that's that can be daunting. But the thing is you're, you're you got to a place where you could do so many different things. Oh, yeah. I mean, so many different things.

(03:04:18):

So. Yeah. Yeah. And and I'm excited about it, you know what I mean? I think whatever I am compelled to serve, you know, serve a greater purpose, you know, and I don't know exactly where that ends up yet. I don't yeah, I have some ideas, you know, but, I think that people that don't serve a life of servitude.

(03:04:38):

Right? You. I have been miserable in the past. You know what I mean? Because I got selfish, and I started thinking about myself, and, only I mattered, you know what I mean? And, like, that ain't the way, you know is, like, I want if I can just take. I've already, through my career, taking a small piece of the world.

(03:04:54):

And I believe that I've made it a little bit better of a place, you know. And if I could continue that at the end of the day, when I die, I don't want anybody talking about how much money I made, right, I don't I want my son to look back and talk about my military career and how I serve my country, and that I continue to live a life of servitude and change so many people's lives that it did make a small dent in the world and made just a little bit better, made a little bit more matter, you know?

(03:05:20):

And if I can do that, it doesn't matter what money I'm making, you know, and I mean it. It will all come, all good things come, you know what I mean? But like, I have to serve a better, greater purpose. I've been doing it. I've been doing it my whole damn career. I'm going to do it my whole life, one way or another.

Justin McMillen (03:05:36):

You know, he's going to watch this. Oh, yeah. You know, he'll watch this over and over and over. Probably watch it long after you're gone. Yeah, I think about that. Yeah. So glad that you sat down and shared everything today Dan. Yeah. Thank you Justin I appreciate it is one of the better talks we've ever had in here.

Dan Parks (03:05:53):

So yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the time. Thank you for letting me come in this man office. You know why I come walking in here? Like, guys, I'm literally sitting on a sheepskin right now. Like, everything about this is like, Tim the tall man, Taylor. Like, you know, like, thanks for having me on the show.

Justin McMillen (03:06:13):

I really appreciate it. Thank you. And I cannot wait to see what's what's next for you. I'm very excited. I got to have you on here for you really take off and blow up. So I get to be, like the first guy I interviewed. That fucking. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So. Thank you. Yeah, I'm just getting started, Justin.

Dan Parks (03:06:28):

Thanks.