Brotherhood, Transition & Now

Music:  "Everything Is Working Out" by Sarah, the Illstrumentalist, licensed under Epidemic Sound.  Original work available at https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/d82030d0-11ae-4ed6-b8c0-54046531b869/.

In this episode, I have a phone conversation with my longtime friend Marcus to catch up and reflect on a journey that's taken us from the Marine Corps to family life, faith, and everything in between.

We talk about how we first met in the Marines, the experiences that shaped us, and what life looked like after hanging up the uniform. We dive into the challenges of transitioning to civilian life, raising kids, being husbands and fathers, and how our faith has influenced the men we've become.

Of course, we couldn't help but laugh about some of the wild stories from our younger days and compare them to the much calmer (and hopefully wiser) lives we live now. We also take a detour into one of our favorite topics—Texas BBQ—and debate what makes it so special.

Whether you're a veteran, a parent, someone navigating life's transitions, or just enjoy honest conversations between old friends, this episode is full of laughs, memories, and real talk about where we've been and where we're headed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

This is Sturgeon says it straight. Straight talk. Real people. No filter. Say it straight or don't say it at all. Alright, alright. What's up, everyone? Hopefully everyone's doing good out there. Uh today I have a guest calling in from the state of Texas by a good friend of mine, long friend of mine, um, by the name of Marcus de la Fuentes. So, Marcus, what's up, man? What's going on, brother?

SPEAKER_05 0:37

Hey, hey, how you doing, man? Uh uh been a long time, huh?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

I know. I this is I think this is the first conversation we've actually had in a while, huh?

SPEAKER_05 0:46

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think the last time was when uh I think I was busy out there. I couldn't remember I was there for a retirement.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I think I think you had a nephew that graduated from boot camp.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, my nephew graduated boot camp. Yeah, oh yeah, that's been a long time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Yeah, and it and I know that uh we keep in touch every now and then through, you know, through social media, whatever the case is. Um every now and then we'll I'll get a message from you, I'll send you a message. Mostly funny videos, huh?

SPEAKER_05 1:12

Yeah, yeah, no, that's it. That's it. Just you know, just trying to have fun, just trying to uh keep in touch. And that's the I guess that's the spirit of uh what the military brings.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, brother. I mean, we've we've known each other for quite a bit some time, and uh, I know even though we don't talk and we don't see each other, it's like right now, bro, like just getting on the on the phone with you, it's like it's like nothing's nothing's changed.

SPEAKER_05 1:33

It's like all man. It's always yeah, it's always love, man. It's it's always, you know, uh, we've gotten older, maybe some more gray hair, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

That's right, brother. So um yeah, today we're gonna talk a little bit about like how we met, you know, our time in the Marine Corps, you know, life after we got out of the Marine Corps, and then kind of like what we're up to now. You know what I mean? Uh just kind of want the audience to know a little bit about you, uh, whatever you're into. And that's about it. It's just about having a good time here, brother. Just uh, you know, shooting the shit, uh having a conversation, and that's what it's all about, man. Just having real conversations with people that I've met throughout the years, friends that I have, you know, acquaintances, whatever the case is, people that I've just met. It doesn't matter, bro. It's just conversation. Um, so real quick, man, how did we meet? We met in the Marine Corps, I know that, but if you want to go ahead and tell the audience how we met, bro.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

Yeah, so I was uh actually I had I had just uh uh re-enlisted and I was leaving uh uh my last unit. I I want to think it was around 05.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, 2005.

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Yeah, I believe in 05, and I was leaving uh uh as you know we we were both com guys, yeah, and I was leaving in I was in I was in the infantry. Yeah, and just just in case anybody starts I I wasn't in the infantry, I was I was a com guy that was attached to an infantry company.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah because you know how it is, man.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

Make sure that's clear, yeah. But uh but when I was checking in uh to uh comp company, and I think they had just switched over, it was first FSG, and then they had just switched over to first MLG, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

That was yeah, they changed the name so at that time. Yeah, so for you out there that haven't, if this is your first episode, a unit is obviously in the military, it's kind of like where you work, like your company, your organization that you belong to, and you typically work there for two to three years at a time. Yeah. Go ahead, brother.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

So uh so I I'm I'm checking in to uh a company. Yeah, and I believe that's where you know I kind of meet um that was your second, I believe I uh uh correct me if I'm wrong, but that was your second run in the Marine Corps, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

I did four years. Yeah, I did four years, got out, went into the reserves, and then I came back in. I was actually gonna be an officer. I went to officer candidate school and everything, and I I completed the graduate the turn the uh the training and everything, but then I started getting that itch. I want to just I wanted to just be back in full time. And you know, at the time, you know, there was war happening and all that stuff. So I w I was itching, bro. I was itching. So I came back in.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, and and uh uh when I met you, I believe you were you were still a you were are I don't know what you got out as your first uh round, but you came back in and you were a corporal, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, I I had got out of corporal.

SPEAKER_05 4:13

I know you picked up sergeant pretty quickly after I showed up.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I I got out as a corporal and then I picked up in the reserves, I picked up sergeant, and then when I came back in because of my time in the reserves, I don't know how they calculated, they do a bunch of stuff. I don't know how it is now, but I had to come back in as a corporal. So I had to start all over as a corporal. Not only as a corporal, but like a brand new corporal. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:34

Oh wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah. So yeah, I got it.

SPEAKER_05 4:37

I remember I remember I met, I met uh I remember me I remember meeting you guys. Uh I remember meeting uh you and um I believe um I remember uh I I I don't know what he retired as, but at the time it was uh Denny Williams.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Oh yeah, I I don't know. I think he picked up Mass Arm before he got out, I believe. Uh I'm not I'm not 100% sure. But yeah, Gunnery Sergeant Williams, man.

SPEAKER_05 5:04

I actually ran into him when my son was graduating boot camp. I believe he still worked at N C R D, man.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah, I think he works as a contractor or something.

SPEAKER_05 5:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

So uh so that that that that was kind of cool. That was kind of cool. But yeah, you know, it was Tom Company. We were all uh Tom guys, uh, we were all wired off to be like fireman. Um I I don't even know if that MOS exists anymore.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

I don't know either, bro. You know, there's so much that has changed since we we both got out. Yeah. I I it's not even the same Marine Corps anymore, bro. It's not.

SPEAKER_03 5:36

I know.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

I mean your son can tell you he's in it right now, but yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:40

Yeah, and and no, I think you're right. I don't I don't think it is, man. I uh uh I I I know some stuff has changed, especially some stuff that he's told me, but you you know how it is. I I'm sure uh when we were going in, you had these older guys. The old heads, yeah. It's like, oh yeah, you know, so it's it that's how it is. But I think the spirit still lives on, right? Yeah, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

The Marine Corps spirit's still there.

SPEAKER_05 6:01

I I yeah, yeah. I I still hear some of his stories that he calls and tells me about, and I'm like, yeah, you know what what it is to be 21 again, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Oh, I wish, man.

SPEAKER_05 6:09

I remember it was 21 years, you know. Um but yeah, man, that that's kind of where we went, dude. And then I mean, it wasn't shortly after I checked in that uh um there was a small task meeting you, and uh and and I remember there was another uh uh sergeant, Sergeant Salas. Sergeant Fellows? We're all pretty good friends, yes, right? Sergeant Salas.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Fellows. Oh, Sergeant Sallas, female Salas, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. I thought you said fellows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, shout out to Salas if you're out there.

SPEAKER_05 6:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I every now and then I see her on uh um social media. I think she lives out in Florida now, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

So I don't know where she lives, but yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

But uh, but yeah, I remember we all kind of hung out. I remember I I think we all went to I think we all went to the zoo. I think I have that picture somewhere out, man. I gotta probably get to you guys.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Because we had we had young kids at the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:00

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, we and uh uh and then we went to we deployed to Iraq shortly after. Like I think I was there like six, seven months. Yeah, that's about right.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And then we all left to Iraq, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

And then uh and then we got separated from there.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

I know, dude. And that's the thing, bro. We had created such a bond. Um, because you know, before we even left, you know, we had we had got to know each other for this, you know, the last six, seven months. Um, our wives, you know, they they were pretty close to our kids. We we lived together at a point at some point too. We were living together.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

Yeah, we did, we did.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

And then, yeah, uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 7:32

Remember, Kathy was was babysitting uh your kids.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, dude. My my youngest two. I mean, I'm sorry, my oldest two, my oldest two, Anthony and uh and Onise at the time. Yeah. And I remember little Marcus hanging out with uh with Anthony, my son. They were the same age.

SPEAKER_05 7:48

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so we quit your wife was deployed at that time, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah, she was deployed actually. My wife actually deployed before I did. Um, she was out there. Yeah, she was with First Marine Division, and uh she went out there, she was in Blue Diamond. For those of you that know, you know, Blue Diamond, if you know, you know, right? Uh she was out there, and uh we got sent out, and I remember I was thinking like there was maybe a group of 12 of us, maybe from Calm radio operators, wire dogs, and then uh I believe we were in Kuwait, right? We were in Kuwait. Yeah, and then from Kuwait, they kind of separated us. They're like, hey, you three are gonna go over here, you four are gonna go over there, whatever the case is, and we got separated, bro. And I was bummed out about that.

SPEAKER_05 8:34

No, big time, dude. That was that that was uh and then it was with the well, I don't know. I I'm assuming we all kind of got it, but uh, I remember the the unit I went to was a bunch of reservists.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, same here, same here. I was with second ring, I was with second ring division. Yeah, but there are a lot of reservists out there.

SPEAKER_05 8:52

I got hooked up with uh I man, I I would probably say about 90% of that unit I was with was off reservists. Yeah. I I met some really cool guys, some really great guys, but you know, there were some that that I mean you know, if you work you kind of understand, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, yeah, and and no no fault to them.

SPEAKER_05 9:11

No, no, not no nothing at all. But it's different when you when you're doing it, you know, every day, all day long. Yeah, when you're doing it just on the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

Like I said, I met some really good guys uh that I still keep in contact today with, man. I'm the same way, I'm the same. Yeah. Yeah, really really, really cool guys. And and what's funny is is they're all over. I mean, from New York, from Philly, Pennsylvania area, North Carolina. They were all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Pennsylvania, yeah, everywhere.

SPEAKER_05 9:37

Yeah, yeah. So it was really cool, man. It's really cool to uh uh just how the Marine Corps, even though we were in that kind of I guess you could say atmosphere, but you still get to meet everybody from from all walks of life, you know, uh just everywhere, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Um we had some crazy times too, man. I gotta tell you.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Um before we get more into it, just real quick, uh, we used to party, bro. We were we would we worked hard and we played hard, didn't we?

SPEAKER_05 10:06

Oh, no doubt about it. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I think I think we lived up to the spirit of the Marine Corps, if you uh you know, so to so to speak, right?

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Oh no, 100%. 100%, man. You know what's funny is uh I still I still tell the story because uh uh I I wasn't even a fan. You know, I and you know, I well, you know, I'm a Cowboys fan.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I know, I know, I know. Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:27

But I I remember uh uh this is I believe this is the time that I was already uh uh staying with you guys, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, we were living together at the time, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

We we we went out to uh to watch uh uh Raiders and San Diego, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

It was a Monday night, it was a Monday night football game.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

Yeah. Yeah. I I had no skin of the game whatsoever because neither team is my team, right? Right, right. I think at the time uh we we were hanging out with a couple of other Marines.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Camp. Camp was with us. Camp.

SPEAKER_05 10:54

And they were all Raiders fans, right? Everyone was Raiders fans.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

All Raiders fans.

SPEAKER_05 10:59

And uh I I think did we go to Hooters?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

It was Hooters, yeah, yeah. It was Hooters.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

It was Hooters, right? And I didn't I didn't even know at the time. Well, one I well, I mean I didn't know at the time, you know, because we we were young, you know. I mean, even though we were kind of old in the I guess you could say in the Marine Corps. But I think we were in our prime though. Yeah, yeah, we were. We're probably like 22 years old. I know you're a little bit older than me. Yeah, yeah. You know, I might have been 22, 23 years old.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

I was about 25 at the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

Yeah. I I I didn't know that uh that that you had a limit. Remember they they cut us off.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Oh, yeah, they cut us off because they're like, you guys are drinking too much. And and then they they made a comment, uh, something like along the lines of like, yeah, you guys are Marines and we don't want things to get out of hand.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

And they cut us off.

SPEAKER_05 11:43

And then it got out of hand. Yeah. And then it got out of hand.

unknown 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:48

But I I remember, if I remember clearly, I think it was somewhere around 12 to 13 pictures of beer between the three of them.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Oh, easily, easily. Easily. Right. At least. At least.

SPEAKER_05 11:57

And then and then I remember both of our wives, even though we stayed together, both of our wives had to come pick us up.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

They were waiting for us in the parking lot. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:06

Because they they they all had to pack the kids in the car.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, I remember that, dude.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

And they and they couldn't take one vehicle because it there were four car seats, you know. Whatever the case was.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah, dude. Uh, good times, but at the same time, it was like, dude, we got our ass kicked that night when we got home. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 12:23

Hey, but we were we made it to work on time the next day. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

We had to wake up the next morning, we had to do a three-mile run, whatever the case is, ready to go.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

And we were ready to go, man. I think that was the uh uh I mean that that's probably one of the awesome times that I could say that that was a good night, man. Yeah. I mean, we had even the barbecues that we had, just the amount of people that we had, man, that that always It's all about camaraderie, bro.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

It's all about camaraderie, and that's something that you don't necessarily get out when you get out of the Marine Corps. It's hard to find that, man.

SPEAKER_05 12:54

Agreed, man. Agreed, agreed. Yeah, and then uh you find it in small pockets.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

You do, you do. Every now and then, but not the same, not the same, not in the same capacity. It's a fraternity, bro, that that we were part of. We're a lot, we're alumni, bro. That's what we are.

SPEAKER_05 13:08

Yeah, yeah. You know, I mean we would have parties and we would have just Marines that were just hey, you know what? Don't don't drive home, crash out here on the couch, crash out here on the floor. There's here's one room, here, take another room. Wake up in the morning and there's there's you know, six other marines that are there. Yeah, man. I think I think that's also shows a Friday end. Instead of watching them drive home, get drunk. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Stay here, you know, take care of each other. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

As much as you can. And you know, I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say this jokingly, man. But I think movies like old school, the hangover, I think they were they they there was some truth to the stuff that we did. I don't know. Hey, those movies, those movies were based off uh off of Marines, I think. And I say it jokingly.

SPEAKER_05 13:51

Oh agree, agree.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

I say it jokingly, but man.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

I mean, yeah, no, I mean, hey, you I mean I hey I never I didn't invent it, but I know we all heard what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand. So I didn't invent that term. That was well before my time, but it hey it still goes off to this day, man.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I know, man. Um, I I just those moments that we've had, bro, uh getting together on the weekends, uh evenings after work, whatever, bro. We had each other's back, no matter who it was. A lot of good guys that we serve with, um uh fellows, remember Sergeant Fellows? Um Stats Arn Owens, remember Stats Arn Owens?

SPEAKER_05 14:29

Yeah, Owens, Owens, uh he had a saying, huh?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Owens had like a little saying. It's on him popping. It's on him popping, man.

SPEAKER_05 14:37

Who was the other one, uh, that other staff sergeant that was there for a long time?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Oh, female or male?

SPEAKER_05 14:43

Male.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Oh, damn, who was it? I can't remember names at this point, but I know who I think I know who you're talking about. Ball dude.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

He was there forever. He he I just retired as a staff sergeant.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Oh, I don't know his name. I can't think about it, but yeah, he was there for a minute.

SPEAKER_05 14:55

Remember, I think he was a bouncer at rookie, too.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

He was, bro. He was a bouncer at one of the bars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:00

I can't remember his name, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

I can't either, bro. I can't think of his name.

SPEAKER_05 15:04

Yeah, I remember Staff Star Owens, dude. Hey, man, that dude was wild, man. That dude was wild too, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

He was from Tennessee, bro. He was from Tennessee. He had that little he had that little twang or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

That little Yeah, yeah, he sure did. He was from the South, bro. And he lets you know too. Everything he did was was you knew you knew he was from the South out there, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, everything was on and popping, bro. Everything was on and popping at the time. That was the saying at the time. All right, brother. And then uh yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

No, and then we had some other some other cats in there too. Um uh we had some we had some young we had a handful of young Marines that were really uh.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Remember Briggs?

SPEAKER_05 15:36

Yeah, Briggs, yeah, Briggs was there.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Ward.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

We had uh Ward, he was in the uh uh the Data guy.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, Data Guy next to our next to us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Yeah, remember True? Yeah from radio, yeah. Uh hey, what about Chuck, bro?

SPEAKER_01 15:52

What about Chuck?

SPEAKER_05 15:54

You know what? I I mean I still talk to that guy, dude. Yeah, I talked to that guy. Uh I don't want to say I talked to him on a on a weekly basis, but probably monthly we just text each other, hey man, we're of course it's always joking, you know. Yeah, yeah, of course. It's always something game. You know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Good times.

SPEAKER_05 16:11

Unfortunately, I just you know, but it's always something joking that we But uh he's doing well, man. Uh uh I believe yeah, he he still works in his family business.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Okay. Uh good for him.

SPEAKER_05 16:22

Yeah, they're the I think the whole family, I think his dad retired. Oh damn, I think they all work as like uh in a fabrication shop at his mom.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

That's good money right there, man.

SPEAKER_05 16:31

Yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, everybody seems to be doing well. Like I said, only individual I haven't talked to in some time is is Briggs, man.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Briggs, yeah, that guy just disappeared, man. Yeah, he was from New York, right? Somewhere in the East Coast?

SPEAKER_05 16:44

I think he's somewhere from New York, yeah. Yeah, I think Rochester, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Somewhere, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

Oh I don't know. Any somebody from New York can vouch for us. I don't even know if they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, I don't even know, bro. But do you remember do you remember Navarro, Drew?

SPEAKER_05 16:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

That guy I still chat with him, or I haven't heard from him in a while, bro. If you're out there, Navarro, Drew, Andrew, hey, reach out, man. And then uh Espinoza, too. Sergeant Espinoza.

SPEAKER_05 17:09

That's right, Espinoza, yeah. That guy too, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

Remember your uh uh, I think you're another home at uh Robles.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Robles, he's around, bro. I I see him on social media every now and then. That dude, he's doing good. He's doing good, man. Yeah, same thing, Robles. If you're out there, man, uh reach out, brother. Reach out for sure. I think I think go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 17:28

I remember that guy, Robles, dude. I we we were we were I think we were both short timers and we were already getting out.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

I I don't know where I don't remember where exactly uh uh uh you were at at the time. I don't know if you had already deplored or if you had already uh re-upped and and and was stationed somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:47

But I remember me, they sent me and him out to some build out, bro. In the desert, right? In the desert. Yeah, in the desert called Eagle Mountain. Yeah, you might have still been there, dude.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

I was I was uh I think I was uh fapped out at the m at the time.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

I was uh and we had some you know, excuse me, but we had some fucking shitty ass officers that were running that.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 18:09

I can't remember their names, dude, but man, they were some shitty ass officers. We had it was a warrant officer that he was also a short timer, and I'm sure he was just like quite pissed off that they sent them out there. Yeah, you know. But I remember they tried to get me and Roses handed up on some on some bullshit. I mean, luckily nothing, nothing happened on something. Yeah, no, nothing happened. But it was great. I remember uh they had to send Johnson to come out and get us in like the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Oh, Neil, oh Neil, Sergeant Neil Johnson.

SPEAKER_05 18:37

Yeah, yeah. They had to send his in a van.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

That's my boy right there. That's our boy right there.

SPEAKER_05 18:43

Yeah, man. So but I remember that place, dude. Eagle Mount, that was a horrible place.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Yeah, dude. They used to send us to some some places that were like the armpits of wherever you were, man. Just some dumps, man. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:56

This was in Cali somewhere, and it was horrible. I don't even know where it was at. It wasn't even, I mean, I I'm only assuming it was near 29 pounds, but I'm in a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Probably Barstell somewhere out there. Yeah, and I remember there was one time we went out to this facility, I don't know if it's the same one, but it was out in the desert somewhere, and they actually filmed movies there like Terminator and other movies, yeah. And they had like these little simulation towns of like what Iraq would be like or Afghanistan. And we we would do training out there, bro. It was pretty legit, but man, it was hot. It was so freaking hot.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

And uh, yeah, just hours and hours of freaking training out there. But it was fun though. If you think now looking back, looking back at it, yeah. Looking back now, I was like, dude, I would I would go back for a day, man, just to just to hang out with the boys, you know what I mean? Shoot the shit, hang out, you know. Oh, yeah, no, no, no, do marine things, bro.

SPEAKER_05 19:46

Yeah, as long as as long as there's a as long as there's a few beers on on cold, man, I'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Bro, we yeah, no, that's for sure. Hey, remember our little basketball tournaments we used to have, bro?

SPEAKER_05 19:56

Oh my god, dude. That was hey, they got his head.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

There was a lot of elbowing, there was a lot of pushing. Dude, there was a lot of altercations, bro. Altercations left and right, bro.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

It was, dude, it was, dude. But by lunchtime, we were we were going out to lunchtime.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah. And then uh real quick, going back to Gunny Williams, man. Um, this cat, man, I remember he was one of the best staff NCOs I've ever had, one of the best leaders that I've had when it comes to just getting stuff done. But remember we would cut off early to go bowling? Like almost like I don't know, every other day we'd cut out and we'd go bowling, and he would make everybody go bowling. Like, hey, you you either stay in the shop and clean or you go bowling. Like, hey, let's go bowling.

SPEAKER_05 20:41

Yeah, that dude was I to be like you said, he was probably one of the premier leaders that that uh we had just for the simple fact that if you did what you needed to do, he took care of you, man. Yeah, yeah, you got your shit done, he was gonna take care of you.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, he had your body.

SPEAKER_05 20:54

Now granted, was he perfect? Nah, but I mean the dude, if you did what you need, and and what what was cool about him is that if you if you didn't know something, he was willing to teach you how to do it or how to use it or something. Yeah, the dude had so much fucking knowledge, it was unreal. He did, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

That dude was like a a sponge, bro. That guy absorbed everything, man. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

But it was it was a good time, man.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

It was. I mean, like I said, one of the best times I've ever had, one of the best units that I've ever been part of, as far as like a group of people to be around. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Yeah, I absolutely was.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Hey, so tell us a little bit about like you grew up in Texas, of course. You're from Texas, so yeah, man. Tell us a little bit about Texas, bro. Like, you know, you growing up there, what did you know about the Marine Corps before you joined, or what was it like in Texas, you know, before?

SPEAKER_05 21:45

Yeah, so you you know what uh I grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Yeah, uh, I grew up between uh I would say the south side and the southeast side. Um if anybody from Texas, anybody from San Antonio listening, yeah, basically I grew up in the

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Okay. If anybody's out there that's San Antonio.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

So um growing up, uh I knew my dad. My dad was in the Air Force. That's all I really knew.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

I do remember you telling me that, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:15

Yeah, I knew my dad was in the Air Force. I knew he retired. Um and I always thought that was I always thought that was cool. And um I knew from going to my grandmother's house, I knew a little bit about the uh I just knew that there was always there was Marines on the wall, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:32

My grandmother's brother and my grandfather. My grandfather died uh when my mother was real young, so I never I never knew him. Okay. Uh yeah. But I knew that that those of you and I knew my uncle, my my mother's brother, I knew he was in the Marine Corps. And he would always talk about that the day he got the day he flew home when he got out of the E uh EAS.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 22:53

Um yeah, when he ended his contract, the day he flew home was the day I was born.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Oh, damn. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:02

Even to this day, he always jokes about it. He would remember my birthday just because that was the day he got.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Ah, I got you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

So uh uh so I knew uh a little bit about the Marine Corps, uh, but growing up was tough, you know. Um yeah, I think I told you, you know, my my father wasn't, you know, he wasn't always around, you know, him and my mother divorced. Um I want to say like in '83. Um I don't want to say he disappeared from my life, but but he wasn't he wasn't he wasn't around.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

He wasn't consistently in the picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:36

Exactly. You know? And no fuck to his own, man. I mean, I'm sure, you know, he was done with stuff, and and I'm not here to to to say anything because 'cause later on we had a very good relationship uh uh uh before his happy.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Oh that's I mean that's good. At least you had that before, you know.

SPEAKER_05 23:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So but but growing up it was just me, uh my older brother, and my brother's five years older than me. Um so it was just me and him and my mom. And and you know, I I'm sure you can probably relate, but uh uh but but single mother raising two two boys, um, especially getting to that age of you know, if they're they're curious about stuff, you know, me and my brother got into a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:16

Uh we did we we did voice up, you know, and in in in the 80s, you know, we we were either riding our bikes or going skateboarding across town, you know, literally from one side of town to another side of town, and it just wasn't you know, it it wasn't like it is now where you don't even want your kids to go halfway down the top.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

There was a lot of freedom back then, bro, growing up in our in our time. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

So so uh me and our brother just hung out, you know. My brother was five years older than me, so so clearly, you know, he was gonna uh uh graduate before me and all that.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:49

And uh and and it was at his when he left for the Marine Corps, he actually joined the Marine Corps. Uh that's right.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

I got to meet your brother. I got to meet him.

SPEAKER_05 24:58

Yeah, yeah, you yeah, I think so, because he did come down and with us in San Diego for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, and I did meet him at your at your nephew's graduation.

SPEAKER_05 25:06

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So so when he went to the Marine Corps, I went to go see Gay's graduation. And it was it was at that graduation, I believe I was going into my eighth grade year.

unknown 25:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 25:17

And it was at his Marine Corps graduation that that's when I said that I want to do that same thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

Because the graduations haven't changed. If you've been to one Marine Corps graduation, you've been to all of them, right? They're all great, bro. Yeah. So my brother graduated boot camp in 90 uh 94.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

94. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

Somewhere around there. Yeah. And that was the moment that I knew, like, oh yeah, that's that I I want I want to I want to have that same type of ceremony. I just didn't know what happened afterwards, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_05 25:48

So it was so I was pretty young when I knew I wanted to join the Marine Corps. Now, granted, my high school years, you know, of course, you just kind of, you know, you did what every typical high school zone thing that I would say. I kind of leaned towards is I did join the JRTC program.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:04

And uh, but other than that, I I just did what I needed to do to graduate. You know, I wasn't great in school. Um, and I don't say I wasn't great in school because, you know, I just didn't know. I, you know, I just I just didn't really like school. I didn't really want to.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yeah, no, because you're you're a smart dude, bro. Honestly, you are a smart guy.

SPEAKER_05 26:20

So I I did what I had to do, man. You know, I just uh I just did what whatever I needed to do to graduate because I knew I had that one goal, you know. Um luckily I didn't do stuff that was gonna get me into a lot of trouble. You know, um I I'm not gonna lie, I I you know I did, you know, you know, you're a high school, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Yeah, bro, you you got into some stuff. Let's just let's let's just say that, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:44

Right, right. You know, you might have dabbled in, you know, maybe pod and stuff like that, but but I didn't I I wasn't I think because the neighborhood I grew up in, I saw what hard drugs would lead to.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:55

And I was terrified of that. You know what I mean? Like, um, like I I I'll be honest with you, like my uh my uncle, I love my uncle that was in the Marine Corps, but I saw what drugs did to him, and I was like, there was just no way that I I would I I ever wanted to live in a lifestyle like that. Yeah, just so that's what kind of led me led me going. Like I said, I I'm a product, I always tell people I'm a product of San Antonio, uh at the southeast side of San Antonio. You know, um uh my my wife is a product of the same area. Uh she was a little bit closer to the east side of San Antonio. Um you you met my wife before. Oh yeah, shout out to Kathy. You know, our family knows each other, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:37

Yeah, so so she grew up on the east side as well. I met her our uh my high school years. Uh it was probably my senior year in high school, is when we really started seriously dating. Um and and now, I mean, here we are, we've been married, you know, uh February will be 25 years.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Damn, congrats, brother.

SPEAKER_05 27:55

Yeah, yeah, man. So um I'm still here. We got three kids together, as you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:01

Um but everything's been uh everything's been blessing. And and when I got out, I knew I wanted to come back to San Antonio. Well, you know, our family was here, but but I love San Antonio, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Um that's home, brother. Yeah. Um it's kind of is it is San Antonio kind of like a melting pot? I don't know. I'm not too familiar. So is it kind of you get a little bit of everything or no?

SPEAKER_05 28:23

I I I honestly feel that you get a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:26

Um now I I will say that it has changed in the course of the last 20 years. Um, there's been a a large surge of of other uh uh we're getting a lot of more like like agents from the Southeast Asia here.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:39

Uh because we're we're seeing a lot more uh restaurants open up, you know, a lot more of that southeastern uh uh Asian style.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Yeah, a little variety, man.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

Um and then we're getting a lot of uh uh Middle Eastern food.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 28:52

Um so so in that I'm not saying it's blowing up like you know, Houston or New York or LA style, but it is it we are seeing that big surge coming to. And a lot of San Antonio are embracing it, to be honest with you, man. Okay. I I see some of these places, and my daughter, that's you know, my daughter's a huge fan of uh of of Asian food, and that's anytime I ask you, hey, what do you want to go to eat? That's it. Asian food major. So you can tell you right off the top, what's the new one that popped open, what's the popping one, you know.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

So uh uh we do a lot of that stuff, and there's there's there's always new stuff here happening, you know. Uh that's good. And of course, you know it's a large Hispanic community here.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Yeah, you know, of course it's Texas, man.

SPEAKER_05 29:35

Yeah. So uh that that's always gonna be here, which you know, um we try I as you know me, uh uh uh my all my my always uh tormented stuff is yes, I I know I'm Mexican, but but everybody looks at me like they expect me to speak Spanish.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Right.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

And as you know, I I don't speak Spanish.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

So that's always been my dilemma, you know. Right for a while, it was almost like a love-hate relationship, you know?

SPEAKER_01 30:01

I I remember, brother. Yeah, I remember.

SPEAKER_05 30:03

Yeah, yeah. You know, uh I I've since gone out of it, you know what I mean? Like uh granted, I still get people that talk to me in Spanish, but I don't let it bother me. You know, uh I I get it. Um uh uh I should I speak Spanish? Uh probably so. Yeah um you know Kathy's always saying, Oh, why don't you learn voluntary, especially in the field I'm in, you know, why don't you learn? And I say, you know what, maybe I will, um, but I just haven't had that itch to learn it because I've been doing okay with you've gotten by.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

You've gotten by. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 30:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

And and the guys I work with, they know even um if it uh if you don't know, I do construction a lot. So a lot of our construction guys here in San Antonio are predominantly Hispanic and and if for the most part, they're predominantly uh Spanish speaking.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

And I remember, brother. Yeah, I remember when we I don't know. They know what a phone format is, you know, we know what forms are. We we we we we can talk that language, you know. Yeah, you know, you know, you know the basics.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Yeah. Yeah, and I remember when we first met, brother. I I and it and it's not just you, it's like if you're from Texas and you're in the Marine Corps, right? The majority, not all, not all, but there's a there's a big percentage that that uh you know it's like well I'm I'm Texan. You know, first and foremost, like I'm I'm I'm Texan, you know, because there's there's a lot of pride coming from your state, obviously. And even though you don't speak Spanish or you do, it doesn't matter. It's like Texas first, right? And there's nothing wrong with that, bro. I've always kind of envied that that like pride that you have in your state, you know, and there was always that it was always that battle. Like who who's better, California or Texas, right? I don't know why. Right?

SPEAKER_05 31:44

Who's the real Mexican man? Who's more Mexican, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yeah, who has the better food? Who has and you know, yeah, yeah. Everything's bigger in Texas. Oh, we got in and out, or you got Whataburger, you're like, it was always a freaking battle, right?

SPEAKER_05 31:57

Absolutely. I I'll tell you what they man that I tell people is I said, uh my favorite burritos are still in California.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Is it Kolima's right there in uh close to Camp Pendleton off the off the bay? I don't know if they're still there, but Colima's was the spot, bro.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

That was a good there was one that was right outside that gate. I forgot which gate it was, but it was it wasn't the main gate, but it was close to uh Fallbrook, the Fallbrook Gate, maybe? No, no, no, no. It was it was between the Fallbrook and the main gate. Uh going out towards Organside. This is going out towards what's that little city in the behind there? Not not Farbrook, but there was another one. I think it was called Alberto's.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Oh, yeah, brother. That was a good spot, too. Yes, it's it's by the purple church.

SPEAKER_05 32:38

Huge, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. If you know, you know. If you know you know, that thing is gone, man. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

I don't know. I haven't been to Oceanside in a minute, brother. I've driven by there, but I haven't got off, you know, and whatever. It's been a minute, man.

SPEAKER_05 32:55

I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to reach out to uh uh some of these young uh uh Marines that I see on TikTok all the time and say, hey man, there's a purple church still around the world.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Hey bro, while you while you just you just mentioned young Marines, right? This is something that I think is crazy. I don't know about you, but you know, I of course I go on TikTok, I make videos, whatever. You do too, you know. You got we we're on TikTok. Let's let's not let's not lie about about it, right? Um you always see now I'm seeing videos of all these young Marines posting, dancing in their uniforms, posting little videos at work. Like, dude, I didn't know that was allowed. Like I said, we came we came from a different Marine Corps. We came from a different Marine Corps, brother. So it trips me out.

SPEAKER_05 33:37

No, I I I I I get yeah, I see it too. And at first I was kind of like, man, did you wh why are y'all doing this? Because in my mind, I'm like, you know, I'm like, do they know that they're setting themselves up for for for disciplinary action?

SPEAKER_02 33:52

But yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:52

Yeah, but but for yeah, because I'm because I'm a because bro, I remember when I was a Lance Corporal. I'm like, you know, if if if somebody wasn't watching us, we were doing something that we probably shouldn't have been doing.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

And a Lance Corporal, for those of you that know, is a young rank. It's like a junior employee. That's what it is. Go ahead, sorry, brothers.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

Absolutely. So uh so I was just looking at at the trouble that we could have got into, and I'm like, man, but but then I I looked at them and I'm like, uh a big one is watching the the female Marines do their hair.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

That's huge. That's huge, bro. Or rolling their sleeves up, you know, doing sleeves.

SPEAKER_05 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

I'm like, okay. I'm like, okay, I'm like, I mean, don't get me wrong, I still get in trouble.

SPEAKER_05 34:34

Yeah. But a lot of them are like like either rolling sleeves up, doing their hair, or or how to blouse their boots.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

And I'm like, Yeah, I'm just surprised.

SPEAKER_05 34:42

Like, this is a tutorial. Like, they're doing tutorials here, and I'm like, yo. What's funny is I started sharing that with my daughter to see putting hair up in a bun. So I would say, hey, look, actually, uh uh, I just saw this TikTok. Follow this girl, she does them all the time. Every morning she does them. So and I and I kind of grew to like, yo, I kind of appreciated it. No, I do too. I do too. I put my hair up in a bun. But I thought it was kind of like, I'm like, yo, like this, that's that's kind of cool. Like, you know, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Do your thing, man.

SPEAKER_05 35:11

You know?

SPEAKER_01 35:12

You're just promoting the Marine Corps, really. You're promoting us.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

Yeah, yeah, no, I yeah. I mean, they actually are. So but I thought it was amazing. I was like, because that at first I was like, yo, man, what are y'all doing? Yeah, like like like go to work, you know.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 35:26

And loved it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

But but you also see sergeant majors on there, warrant officers, chief warn officers. I'm like, oh, yeah, dude, first sergeants. I'm like, damn, dude. I guess the Marine Corps, they're more lax now, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

I you know, the stuff retired sergeant majors are on there now, man. And and even they have their little spats with other sergeant majors that I'm like, oh man, for sure. Everything, everything's down in the open now, man. But but it's amazing though, man. Like I I I really the the the first one I saw was a was a an army guy.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:59

And I I don't know what his rank was, but I think he goes by I think his last name is Flawed.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:05

And I think he's an army first sergeant or something like that. And and I I don't I don't know, but maybe he's a match fight. I don't even know if Army has a first sergeant.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

I I think they do. I think they do.

SPEAKER_05 36:15

Yeah. I think he goes by like like flow, uh is his TikTok name or whatever kick is.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:20

But he was doing like uh I don't want to say they were TTSD awareness, but they were just they were in that realm of it, and that's what kind of got me looking at it. I was looking at it live and I was like, yo, man, like because he was telling his story. Right, right. About how he got his purple heart and what you know, you get your purple heart, you get recognized, but yeah, but it's like you know, you think about what what it took, not even what it took, but what you had to go through to make that purple heart. But even if like he's alive and and he was talking about how the other individuals that yeah, he gets to make these videos, but but he he he you know, unfortunately, you know, he had some CIAs that that didn't take it back, you know, he had some friends and stuff like that. So and I was like, I was like, yo man, like that like those are real, you know what I mean? Like this is real stuff.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

And I appreciate that, man. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

I definitely do, man.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

So I I thought a lot of it about, yeah. I mean, I I thought a lot of that, you know, and I and I just and I look at these young Marines and I see them, I'm like, yeah, man, even even if they're not, you know, combat tested, whatever the case is, if you serve in the Marine Corps, it is a is it it is one of the toughest um jobs you can do probably in your life.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

100%, bro, 100%. Yeah, I don't I don't care if you didn't go anywhere, but just going through boot camp and everything and dealing with the day-to-day, it's a grind, bro. It's a grind not only mentally, but it's a it takes a toll on your body, bro. Like I wake up in the morning and I feel like I'm 70, bro, sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No, no, no, no doubt, man. But yeah, so so I I see them doing that, and I and I I I'm kind of envious, but at the same token, I'm like, hey man, I'd rather have them making a uh a freaking boot blouse tutorial than doing what the heck we were doing. Oh my god. I'm like, I'll I'll take a boot blouse video. We were doing some offering.

SPEAKER_01 38:14

Sure, man. I mean, I don't want to get graphic on here, but man, there was some crazy stuff happening in all the Marine Corps that you were just like, what the heck? Uh but yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 38:26

Absolutely, man, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

Hey, real quick. Yeah, I uh oh go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

No, no, I was gonna say that that you know, especially coming from the enterprise union, and you saw off you saw stuff, you know? You just saw stuff that's a different mentality the normal, and and you were like, yo, man, like is this I was like, yo, is this the Marine Corps yet? What is this? What did we what did I get myself into?

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Right, and and in in most cases, like I don't know about you, I mean, yeah, I'm pretty sure you you would agree, but if it almost felt like you were in a fraternity, you know, the things that went on, uh just the wildness. But at the end of the day, bro, when it came down to business, we freaking handled business. You know what I'm saying? Like we took care of business, and there was no doubt mission came first, we took care of it, and we took care of our Marines, you know, and then and then we had fun. And then we had fun.

SPEAKER_05 39:22

100%, man. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Hey, real quick, man. Texas, Texas, man. Uh I just this was on my mind this morning. I was like, I'm gonna ask Marcus. I'm gonna ask him. Hey, I just filled up my truck, man. Diesel. $625 a gallon over here in Cali. What's what's it up? What's it in Texas right now? Diesel.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

Diesel? Oh man, uh well, I don't have a diesel, but I want to say it's usually about a dollar more than what it is on gasoline here. It's probably around $4.35.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

And and it went up, right? And it was cheaper, right? It was cheaper than that.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

It did it did go up, yeah. It did go up. It's been going up and down here. Yeah. But Sanitone is not too far from our uh from the coast where all the refineries are at.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:09

So so typically Sannington's always gonna be a little bit cheaper than uh uh uh you know a lot of other places. But we're I obviously we're always gonna be cheaper than California, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Oh, I know, yeah, yeah. That's that's a fact. Hey, I got a cousin who lives in Allen, Texas. Do you know Allen, Texas by any chance? I don't know. I guess they have like a high-tech, high-tech high school out there. Yeah. Allen, Texas.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

I don't know where Allen is, Texas at, but where where about where's that? Is that is that up north or I think it's closer to Dallas.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

I want to say it's closer to Dallas.

SPEAKER_05 40:43

No, no, I'm not I'm not too familiar up there, but but uh uh but I wouldn't doubt it, man. I I wouldn't doubt it. Yeah, no, that I I test like it's all like AI now.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

No, what what I mean is like their stadium is like a like a like a university stadium.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

Um oh yeah, yeah. I'll I'll tell you one thing. Yeah, that doesn't yeah, man, yeah, that that that's 100% accurate.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah, my my cousin was telling me that like her his daughter, my niece, she plays uh on the band, in the high school marching band. Yeah. And I guess their marching band is like 300 deep. 300 deep. And um it's like a whole damn it's a festival, basically, at every football game. When they when they go out there. Yes. Their cafeteria has like McDonald's, like uh, you know, Taco Bell. It's like a you're in a university, basically.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I I I would agree with that. Yeah, there are some yeah, yeah. I think if if it's the same school I I'm thinking about, yeah, I might I might have seen them a couple of times on uh just kind of promoting the school, like stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

But yeah, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:47

Yeah, some some of these stadium, especially if your football team's pretty good, you're you're gonna get a stadium. You're gonna get a huge stadium.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Damn, all that money going all that oil money, huh?

SPEAKER_05 41:58

Oh, yeah. I mean, we have one here where my my kids graduated from. Um they have a district and their their their home stadium is is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Ridiculous, huh? I can only imagine, bro.

SPEAKER_05 42:11

I I can't tell you how many, but and it's old. That's the weird thing, is that it's old, but it was but when it was made, it was it was huge, man. It was huge.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

Damn, dude.

SPEAKER_05 42:19

And that was uh uh uh that's a Justin, man. It's a it's a it's called Justin Independent School District, uh Rutledge Stadium is what the name is.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yeah, I can only imagine, man.

SPEAKER_05 42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

I can only imagine, man.

SPEAKER_05 42:32

So but some of these ones that I'd be driving by, especially some of the ones in Houston. Oh my god, man, you you you you would think that you're driving by a uh an actual college. Oh, for real. And then you look at it, it's a high school.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

You're like, oh, yeah, man, it's crazy, dude. Just the amount of money that goes into that.

SPEAKER_05 42:47

But but Texas football, man, it uh especially high school football, man. I mean, high school, college, NFL, I mean, that you know, that that that's the sport here.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

I mean, bro, Friday Night Lights. That all you gotta know is Friday Night Lights. That movie that came out years ago, but Friday Night Lights.

SPEAKER_05 43:03

That's literally what everybody's waiting for. I mean, as soon as NBA season ended here in San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

Oh man, my condolences, bro. I forgot to mention that.

SPEAKER_05 43:10

Yeah, I know, I know. As you notice, we we we did make it to the finals. We didn't win the chip, but we made it there, right? So I think we have a bright future. I hope we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

No, no, you do, you do. Wemby, he's he's a good player. He just needs to work on his defense a little bit more. But uh what's he doing outside outside, bro? Why doesn't he play inside more?

SPEAKER_05 43:28

I I don't know. Oh man, don't get me done. I don't I don't know, man. I just was yelling at the TV the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

That's another conversation, huh?

SPEAKER_05 43:35

Yeah, man. I'm like, this guy, you're you're you're you're I don't know what what do they have him at? Seven five?

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, something like that, brother. Something like that.

SPEAKER_05 43:41

And I'm like, and what do you and you're you're you you you you have two rebounds?

SPEAKER_01 43:46

For real, man.

SPEAKER_05 43:46

Like all this guy in the in the city, and you're on you're only getting two rebounds?

SPEAKER_01 43:51

He should be leading in boards, man.

SPEAKER_05 43:53

Yeah, absolutely, man. So I I'm hoping that that uh this offseason, um Um you know, somebody's stopping him, somebody's trying to give them some advice on yeah, I mean, let's play a little bit closer to the ring. You know, and don't get me wrong, man. It looks great when you can hit a three, when you have a seven five hitting the three.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

When they finish the game with two rebounds, that's just I know, man.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

That's just unacceptable, bro. Unacceptable. But you know what? New York was due, bro. New York was due. They were due for a chip. Yeah. No, don't go ahead, go ahead, man. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 44:25

I'm gonna say I I I don't I don't hate them at all for winning, man. I mean, they would they did they they beating one and and they got a win, man. I mean, they were the better teams. They came out also. They played hard. I mean, look at the games. We we we let the games, we did everything right.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Yeah, no, for real. And you know what? And they were pretty close, man. A lot of those games were close. Like it came down to the end, a couple of a couple of mid-cues. It could have gone either way, man, honestly. But yeah, at the end of the day, man, condolences. I didn't want to bring it up, man, but uh you you guys do have a good future with uh San Antonio Spurs, though. You guys do.

SPEAKER_05 44:59

Yeah, man, yeah, yeah. I'm looking forward to uh I'm looking forward to it, man. I I really am.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

And I was rooting for you guys, brother. I was rooting for you guys.

SPEAKER_05 45:07

Yeah, yeah. I remember you were telling me uh we were we were talking over uh uh uh I don't know, I think what one of the social media sites uh so I mean yeah, man. I mean, I they had a great run, man. I mean, everybody didn't think they were gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

I know.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

You know, everybody was expecting to lose to Oklahoma, you know. Then you know, when when we took that loss against uh I think Minnesota, they were like, oh yeah, that might be and ever every turn they kept turning it, but yeah, I mean I get it. Yeah, young. Um they they uh maybe they went in with a little bit more confidence than they should have.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:39

Um and and and but to me, I I just think New York just wanted it more, man. They were just more hungry, they wanted it more.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

That's what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

But but uh but as you know, man, it's it's people learn, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:50

You know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

I I think the way they felt, they're probably not gonna want to feel that way next season.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 45:56

So I look forward to it. But as as you saw the draft, man, everybody got better, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Hey, yeah. You still have a Tim Duncan jersey?

SPEAKER_05 46:04

Oh, hell yeah, I still got the Duncan jersey.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

You used to rock that thing all the time when we would play basketball, remember?

SPEAKER_05 46:11

I I have to, man. Had to, man. Yeah, man. I I still got the Duncan jersey. I I bet uh, I'm telling you, man, we uh uh I'm really looking forward to this to this season, man. I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, man. Best of luck to you guys, though.

SPEAKER_05 46:24

I look forward to that. I'm looking forward to the Capitol's winning Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Uh all right, you said it right here, right? All right, bro. Let's uh I kind of want to transition into like uh what what was it like for you, man, getting out of the Marine Corps? Like once you transitioned out, because I don't know. We kind of lost touch at that point. We didn't we didn't I wasn't really in communication with you, but I I don't really know what it was like for you, man. Like you left the Marine Corps, went back to Texas. So if you want to talk a little bit about that, man, how how was that?

SPEAKER_05 46:51

Yeah, man. So um I I mean I as you knew as I was getting closer to getting out, uh man, I I was I I wasn't in the uh uh mentally I wasn't in the best shape, you know? Um where you would want somebody to be at when you're getting when you're exiting them.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

A lot of injuries though. I if I remember, you had a lot of injuries, bro.

SPEAKER_05 47:11

Yeah, yeah. Um and uh uh uh I think physically, mentally, you know, you're you're you're you're you're drained, you know?

SPEAKER_02 47:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

Um but I I think too, I I think I didn't finish how I wanted to. Um so you know, one, I was a little bit disappointing. Uh but but you know, everybody says, you know, you gotta have a plan, you gotta have a plan, and and you you can have uh uh you can have a plan, but whether you execute it or not, that's that that's really what it takes. You can have a plan if you don't execute it. And I think that's kind of where where I was at, right? I I I didn't really execute as I should have uh when I was getting out. But nonetheless, man, I got out, uh uh me, my wife, uh uh two kids, um uh Marcus Jr. and Grace um came home. And uh we we uh we actually moved pretty much right back into uh uh the southeast side of the neighborhood. Uh uh I actually came back to my brother for a few months.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 48:14

Um then we got our place uh not too far away. We walk we all lived on the southeast side.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:19

Uh we actually moved, uh got a got got up got a house. Um it was down the street from uh my mother-in-law's from uh Kathy Vaughn Time. Okay. Um and her family all kind of lived next to each other. So it was, you know, um uh it was it was us, her mom, she had a sister probably about two, three minutes away. She had another sister about five minutes away. Her grandfather was like two minutes away.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Oh, she got uh which was get together all the time, huh? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:45

Yeah, yeah, it was all the time, you know. And and that was tough too, because you know, even at that time, um there was some i internal issues going on, you know. Uh I I wasn't uh a a well-liked uh I guess you could say brother-in-law.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Oh, okay, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:04

Uh but but uh but it it is what it is, you know. It was yeah, you know, it's just how it is, you know. Things better now? Things better now or oh yeah, okay, yeah, well yeah, 100% better. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

No, I think I have a great relationship with you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

Um, but one thing that was for sure is that uh we always we always stayed, we always hung out with her grandfather. Catherine's real close to her grandfather, her grandfather.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 49:30

And we were there, man, I mean, all the time, and I mean and I probably say three, four times a week sometimes whether we whether we were bringing dinner over or he wanted to go out. And I looked up to him because he was a uh World War II veteran.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 49:45

Uh he was in the army, but he fought over in the uh he fought on the Pacific.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 49:51

So he yeah, he landed on uh um the Philippines and he landed uh Okinawa. So I I looked up to him like tremendously. Okay. So he would always call us out to go over, always wanted us to go over.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:05

Uh we used to always probably take him out to uh to this place called uh I think it was called Lulu's Cafe.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 50:15

And they had a huge uh chicken fried steak plate. And he would always want us to go there because he would always want me to get it and he wants me to eat it because he was a small guy, you know. He was a bad guy who was already in his late 80s, early 90s.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:29

And he was just like, yo, how how how are you eating? Because it was it was a huge. I mean, the chicken fried steak was on one plate and your size on that.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Oh damn. But that's Texas, huh? That's Texas for you.

SPEAKER_05 50:39

Yeah, exactly, man, exactly. So and me, I was like, yeah, I'll take it. You know, I'll I'll I'll eat it down for you. And yeah, knowing I probably should have left, you know, I just started piling on the way, you know. Yeah. But um, but yeah, I did that for a while. And uh I went to school for about two or three years.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 50:56

Uh I went to school, get my basics out of the way. Uh I was actually I was actually trying to become a uh a teacher.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

Oh, okay. I didn't know I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_05 51:06

Yeah, man, I want to become a history teacher. Um so so I was doing everything I needed uh to knock out. I was I uh I took my um uh my basics over at a at a community college uh called San.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:23

Um it's part of the uh it's the whole thing's called Alamo Community Colleges.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:28

And then I transferred over to uh Texas State and San Antonio.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

Okay. Texas you say Texas AM?

SPEAKER_05 51:34

Yeah, Texas AM San Antonio.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:36

Um so uh yeah, yeah, not not college station.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

Different, different, all right.

SPEAKER_05 51:41

So uh uh I think they're the I think they're the Jaguars.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 51:45

So I had transferred over there and uh I had started going to school there, and everything was cool. It was kind of slow, you know, you're just trying to get stuff into it. That was probably around like 2011, you know. So I had been I was kind of on course, right? I got out in like 08, 09.

SPEAKER_02 52:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

So I wasn't too far away from where I needed to be. Um and then uh remember I told you I didn't have a great relationship with my father.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:09

But once I got out of the Marine Corps, um that relationship was was changing. You know, I was probably seeing him on a weekly basis. Um I was just for whatever he had got real sick. Oh we started I started hanging out with him a lot more. He was going to dialysis, I would take him to dialysis, yeah. Um or I when he wasn't going there, they we set something up to go fishing. Whatever the case is, I I was hanging out, we would eat breakfast, lunch, whatever the case is, I was hanging out with them you know, two, three times a week, you know, d during the day, because I would go to school. Um and you know, if if if if you know, if you got out for you know anybody that's not military, uh with the well with the new GI Bill, or at least with the it was new at our time, uh you would get you would get money for housing school, they would help pay for your yeah, for housing.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Yeah, for housing, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:58

So I took advantage of that.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:01

But it was my dad that took me into uh the VA.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 53:07

And uh I'm getting a little emotional here because you know uh no, it's all good, brother.

SPEAKER_01 53:12

It's all good, man.

SPEAKER_05 53:13

So uh so he took me into the VA.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:16

And uh he's the one that got me started on the uh the disability.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:22

We get a drink of water.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

Oh, go for it, bro. Yeah, and then the VA, man, for those of you who don't know, it's basically just like when you get out of the Marine Corps, you know, if you retire or you're you rate VA benefits, uh, it's basically hospitals, clinics that are designed specifically for veterans. Uh you you basically get all everything you would get in the civilian world, you would get out there for specifically for veterans. Um there's some good and bad. I've heard some you know, some bad stories, but uh for me, honestly, it's been good. I've gotten everything that I've needed. You know, if I have to go get something from my shoulder or get a cortisone shot or whatever the case is, uh it's helped me. You know what I mean? But but everybody has their own experience. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:01

Yeah. I think if you go through the right steps, uh uh for the most part, it it stick for you. Now, I will admit they they might not be the fastest.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 54:09

But if they're gonna get you.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

Yeah, they'll take care of you.

SPEAKER_05 54:12

So anyway, yeah. So yeah, so anyway, uh my dad got me going to that and he got me he got me basically to file claims for the right.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:21

So he's the one that got me doing that. So uh that just kind of so after that we just kind of started really hanging out.

SPEAKER_02 54:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:27

I was going to school, and then um then one day he just told us that he was just tired of going to dialysis. Uh he told me her brother that he wanted to spend his uh last uh uh uh his last days with with me with me and him.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 54:42

Um and I had just started, I think I had just started like, I don't know, maybe my last year. I don't want to say it was the last semester, but maybe I had like two more left.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:51

And uh so I I stopped going and uh um and I just spent the last that was about 14 days. It was me, my brother, my dad. Uh one of his buddies flew in from Okinawa, another buddy flew in from uh uh Florida. Yeah. We just hung out with my dad those last few days. Man. It was hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Very hard. I'm I'm I'm hoping that you you got to spend some obviously some great moments, some very very memorable ones. Yeah, I'm hoping you got to do that. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:19

Absolutely, man. We got some funny ones in that.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

I bet.

SPEAKER_05 55:22

So yeah, so I just hung out with my dad, man, and uh and he passed away in February of 2012.

SPEAKER_01 55:27

Oh man, it's hard to hear that, man. I didn't know, man. I didn't know your your father had passed, so my condolences are not been a while, but my I'm sorry, man.

unknown 55:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:34

No, no, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. But but yeah, he passed in 2012 and uh he was uh I believe he was 59 years old.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Oh man, okay. He was young, yeah, still young, man. Still a lot to a lot to live still, you know, for. But yeah, and it's your time, it's your time, man. I don't know, it's just the way it is. Yeah, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05 55:51

So it kind of it kind of it kind of hit me rough because I was like, damn, you know, I was like, man, like like we just really got real fucked. I mean, I mean, I was seeing him at that time, man. I was probably seeing him, you know, two, three times a week, man.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:04

You know, and and and I just kind of felt that I was like, man, but uh but it got me uh during that process, I was also getting a little bit closer in my in my faith, you know. Uh that's good, man.

SPEAKER_01 56:15

That's good.

SPEAKER_05 56:16

I'm Catholic and I'm uh I'm I I love being Catholic, you know. So I uh I think Kathy's prayers have finally paid off because I just started slowly getting into uh my my faith.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

No, that's good, man. Happy for you.

SPEAKER_05 56:32

No, I thank you. I appreciate it, man. And and so it kind of helped me it kind of it kind of it kind of helped me the the faith kind of helped me, you know, deal with my father's pasting, but I kind of lost that uh that spirit to go to school, right? So I felt like I was kind of back at ground zero again.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:50

So I just went and I just I just started working, man. I I got you know, honestly, I went, I got my uh I got my CDL, dude. I became a trust.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

Oh yes, you did. And how how was that?

SPEAKER_05 57:01

Oh, it was cool, man. It was it was really good. You can make some decent money, but it really wasn't it wasn't my calling, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 57:08

And CDO, what does that stand for again?

SPEAKER_05 57:10

If you if you don't mind commercial, commercial driver's like okay.

SPEAKER_01 57:13

So driving like big rigs or or you know semi-tricks. Yeah, I'm driving AT words. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:18

I had a class A. If we had a class A, you can drive adult pandemic.

unknown 57:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 57:24

Uh if you have a class B, you can drive like the uh like your trash trucks.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Oh, okay, okay. I see.

SPEAKER_05 57:30

Stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:31

So so that's there. It's the way it's a weight difference with what you can what you can uh haul and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 57:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:38

So so I got my class A and uh and I was doing that, and it was fun, but it really wasn't what I wanted to do, right? But it but it was it was it was enough to it was a way to make some money. Pay the bills, you know, get some food on the table, all that good stuff. And uh and that was that man. You know, uh um the journey was still hard because I was still looking, I knew I was missing something. I knew I couldn't like put my hands on exactly what I was missing and why it was. So I think I kind of leaned towards, you know, and I I don't want to get this into, you know, uh uh more than than just what it is, but I really leaned on on my church. Yeah, that's that's doing stuff there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:21

Um I was like helping with the breakfast, you know. I started doing, you know, it was you know, here little stuff here and there, you know. Next thing I know, I'm I'm helping with the barbecue fundraisers, I'm helping, you know, I'm helping Kathy because she was always voluntary stuff.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

So now I'm really just I'm helping Catherine, you know, whatever she did. I was trying to help her. You know, as much as I'm not gonna lie, man, I never really helped clean. That just looked like if you needed me to cook something, you need me to press something out, I I I I'll do it for you, you know?

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:54

And uh and I really uh kind of fell in love with that at the time. And um maybe it's just because it would just kind of help me kind of get through uh some things. Yeah um and and and in the church community, you kind of find that camaraderie, right? That we were talking about in the Marine Corps, right? Yeah, yeah, it might not be as aggressive as the Marine Corps, but you know, you're leaning on each other, helping each other out, you're calling, just checking out on people and how they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:19

And it was really uh amazing, you know. I met some amazing men. Um I even I even joined the Knights of Columbus.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Oh damn. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 59:29

Yeah, I met some really, really great uh uh human beings in there, man. It was it was it was a it was a really cool uh adventure. That I'm I'm still I'm still on it, right?

SPEAKER_01 59:38

I'm I'm still still part of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:42

So uh so after that, you know, I can stop truck driving, trying to make money, but I still know I'm missing something.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:50

Um and I kind of slowly started transitioning to construction sites. Um I started kind of doing I started going to the job sites because I was I became a ready mixed driver, which is delivering concrete to construction sites, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:05

Um and I did that because uh uh well the manager was uh a Marine that I served with, and I said, Yeah, I mean let me go work with this guy, you know. Right, right. That's what I was missing, right? You find that camaraderie, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Yeah, that connection.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:18

And it was great, man. He was showing me how to do some stuff, and he was, you know, he was a good teacher, he was a good mentor. You know, he was actually he was my corporal when I was a PhD in the industry.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:28

Okay, yeah, corporal. And he had moved to San Antonio, and it just it was really great. Uh Joe Hernandez, if you're listening, uh shout out for being uh uh that that corporal and that leadership in my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

That's awesome, bro. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:44

Um and he had got out the Marine Corps, I was out of the Marine Corps, where you know he tells me they're hiring, I apply, start working at this uh ready mix company, and we're delivering uh uh construction uh sorry, we're delivering concrete. Um and then I just started slowly falling in love with uh construction work. So it just kind of led me to other construction jobs.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:08

And uh I started doing some traveling. I was traveling around the state of Texas, really, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth. Every week I was going into a new one one of those cities, right? Every week and I was just uh uh doing uh working at construction sites. I was an inspector there. Um and I would just inspect the uh construction work that was happening. And uh I started looking at the city of San Antonio and uh and I saw I saw something that was similar to what I was already doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:39

Um the pay was was very low. You know, but um yeah, the pay was uh the pay was horrible. The pay was horrible. But I knew that uh I I I I knew the pay would be enough to be able to to sustain what what what we had going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:02

But I knew it wasn't gonna be able to do anything that would you know get us to the next level or whatever, you know, you want a vacation and stuff like that. Right, right. Um but I applied and dude it took me about I want to say I applied eight, I had eight interviews with the city before I finally got out of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Oh damn, dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:23

Yeah, dude, it was very difficult to get in. And I applied for all kinds, I was applied for a truck driver, yeah. I applied uh to pick up, you know, uh uh uh in the solid waste apartment. Dude, I I even applied to be a uh street super for them, dude. You know, you needed a CDL for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

But you're in now, right? You're in.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:42

And now I'm in, and I saw a job for a construction inspector. Um, I applied, interviewed, and I got in, dude, and it did great.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:53

When I got in there, I didn't know what to expect. But I remember one of the first jobs I was on, we were uh putting in uh sidewalks and driveways, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

And it was really the sidewalk that we were put. We were putting them in a neighborhood. The street, actually, the streets called Wagner. And we were on the corner of Wagner, and I I remember this. This was this is about five years ago, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:14

The street, the the the the the intersection is Wagner and Priscilla.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:18

We're putting in sidewalk, old couple, man, probably under 70.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:24

Uh come out and and they're like, hey, you know, uh, thank y'all for doing this. I sell not a problem. Happy to do this. We've we've lived in this house for 55 years, and this is the first time we're getting sidewalks.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:38

Oh, damn.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:39

That was the first time they had seen sidewalks in the world. That's crazy, man. And and and and if it they had been living, they raised their kid in that house and they never had sidewalks. Their grandkid didn't have sidewalks.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:52

You know, that's all I've had been in there. And I just thought it was amazing. And and I and then I knew at that moment, and maybe might sound corny with case, but I was like, this is it. This is the way I'm giving back to the community, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:05

Just whatever it is, because it's it's it's it's their fun. You know, it's taxpayer money. Right. Um what they they they deserve it, you know. Right. Sidewalks, they deserve new sidewalk strategies.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

No, that's good, man. And and if you enjoy your job, I mean, you it sounds like you enjoy it, right? Because you give it back to the community.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:22

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:23

Then it makes the days go by faster, I think. And it it it doesn't seem like you're I don't know. For me, like if I go to my job, do I have good days? Yeah, I do. But there's there's a lot of times where I come home and I'm just like, dude, I couldn't wait for the day to end. But if you go to school, if you have a job like that and you and you truly enjoy it, man, more power to you, brother. More power to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:45

You know, it it was great, man. So so that that's kind of like the journey when I got out. I guess you could say in the short run, that's kind of like the journey.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:52

I I will tell you, when I first got out, man, it was it was very difficult because I just I felt like I had no identity.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:00

I know I know the feeling, man. I know the feeling.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:03

Yeah, man. I felt I had no identity and I had like I didn't know what my purpose was.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:09

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:10

Like, what's what what's my purpose? You know, like am I I'm just a husband now? Yeah. Like and there's nothing wrong with that, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

No, absolutely not.

unknown 1:05:19

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:19

There's nothing wrong with just being a husband and a dad, right? There's nothing absolutely wrong with that. But I I felt like like I wasn't good enough. I just it's something that something just felt like like like I I had no purpose in life.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

Yeah, and you know, and I hear this a lot with like you hear it like on interviews with like sports at with athletes, or not I'm not comparing our I'm not comparing us to like professional athletes, but I'm just talking about the mentality. Like they do something for so many years. They're they're in the major leagues, they're in the NBA, NFL for 15, 20 years, whatever, 12 years, 8 years. And then they get out, they're they're done, they're retired, and and it's like they lose who they are. And it's kind of like okay, I was known for an athlete, a baseball player, a football player. You're known as a Marine, bro. That's that's what you do. And and when you lose that, it's kind of like I know the feeling, man, it's like uh what man, uh you start to get into things that maybe you couldn't get into. You know, a lot of times I know a lot of guys that got out, they got into alcohol, they got into drugs because they couldn't find themselves. And you know, and I'm glad you you found your path, bro. I'm glad that you're doing good with like, you know, with your church and everything, because a lot of guys don't find that, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:26

Yeah, no, it it it it it was difficult. You know, it took me, you know, a a few years, man, and yeah, and it it affected, you know, and I'm not gonna lie, man. Uh uh, you know, it affected, like you said, this is real tough, right? So it affected my marriage.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:41

You know, it it affected my my marriage with uh with my wife. Um uh we struggled. Um but I I mean I owe her a lot because I know she I I know she prayed countless times. And uh and and it took me a while, man. Uh, but but but we worked through it. That's good, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

Happy to hear that.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:03

Um I found something that I really enjoyed doing. Even now, man, like I I'm I'm I'm I'm a supervisor now. I got seven guys, you know, so I I I run out like a little squad, bro, to be honest with you. And you know how to do you know how to run, you know, you know how to lead, you know, and I know that I know that and and and I tell people, I said, you know what, man, I said, you know, you know, because uh a big a big part of our job is is going out to the construction site and just kind of assessing of what's happening, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:32

Well you know, what what what do Marines do, you know, all the time right now, right? We always gotta give what what what situation that we put, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:40

That's what I told these guys said that's what we're doing. We're just doing we're giving the sit rep. Yep. All right. I said I said and some of these guys, you know, I got one guy that was in the army. I said, that's that's all I'm asking for. You know, give me a sit rep. And how do you give a sit rep? Give me a sitro report. Tell me the size of size of who's working. How many guys are working? Tell me the size of it. You know, what are they doing? What's their location at? You know, if you know what, if you know how to reply, you know, plan tax station numbers, you know, so just give me a station number, that's your location. What activities are they with, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:09

You know, I said, you know, so let I go, let's make it simple for us. I I I I I I can't worry about what's going on with the other team, but uh, my team, let's make it simple for us. And let's uh uh let's simplify it and and then just spread it out to the other team, you know. And luckily I have a good uh senior inspector that I think that was in the army. Yeah, and he's brought into it. And and now we're giving that to you know all of our guys. I got a separate guy and uh we're all doing pretty good. Are we a hundred man? Are we the best team? I can't say we're the best team, but you know, um but we're all on the same page.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:47

That's good.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:47

What you see on what you see from this guy, you're gonna see on the next guy, and you're gonna see the same thing on the next guy. So if we're doing it wrong, we're all doing it wrong, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:56

So because we're we're teaching everybody the same thing that we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:59

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:59

But um, luckily, you know, I I think for the most part, we're doing a damn good job. Um we're providing uh a need. Um, and I tell these guys, I was like, look, I I get everybody does it for a different reason, but I'm telling you, if you look at it from a perspective of serving your community, you're gonna find it more rewarding.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:23

And they bought into it, man. You know, I can't say every one of them, but but for the most of them, they bought into it. They all do a great job. And I I have a really good I have a really good squad, man. I have a really good uh a team. That's good. Um everybody knows exactly what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:40

Weaknesses are and what a difference when everybody's on the same page, man. What a difference.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:46

Yeah. It really is. So, you know, what's funny is is is you know, Kathy's like, oh, how was your day? And you know, don't get me wrong, man. There are some days that you're gonna you're just gonna enjoy it, right? But you know, you you know, my the the my my the days that I don't enjoy is when I gotta go to like two, three meetings.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

Oh yeah, I do meet it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:06

Because I'm in meetings all day long. I'm in meetings for two, three hours, and and I'm just you know, again, excuse my language, man, but I'm just hearing people uh bitch and complain.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Oh, no, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:16

And I'm like, you know, and I'm like, bro, you're you're fucking complaining about you know uh a piece of fucking paper, bro. Like, bro, you you we got some real world shit going on right now, bro. Like get the goddamn paper signed and push the fuck on, bro. You know, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:33

I feel you, I feel you. But you gotta be careful, but you gotta be careful how we talk, bro, because I've been I've gotten in trouble for the way I speak, man, in the past.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:40

No, no, absolutely, absolutely. No, I I I'm telling you that. I don't say that. Oh no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

But but I it just got me, it just got me thinking, it just got me thinking like, dude, I want to say certain things, and I have said certain things to people, employees, and I've gotten in trouble because like you can't talk to people like that. You if that's too direct or that's whatever, too aggressive.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

Oh man, I I had a uh we had a manager just recently get fired, dude, because he just started saying inappropriate shit, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Yeah, and I and I get it. I get it. I totally get it.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:10

Well, well, well, well he fucking drew a uh you know, he drew a wiener on he drew a wiener and started texting it to people, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:19

Oh man, come on, what are you thinking, man? Like of course you're gonna get fired.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:22

Like he's been he was dude, he had been with the city like 20 years, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

Oh man, like what the hell is he thinking, man? Yeah, that's yeah, you just ask him for it at that point, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. At that point in time, it's like, yeah, but it's tough, man. But but yeah, that's the kind of stuff that you do gotta watch out for, right? Because we're not in the Marine Corps, right? You know, the Marine Corps, you can tell somebody all kinds of shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:42

Oh, yeah, and and and nothing's gonna happen because it's gotta get done. And that's the way you communicate. That's the way you communicate in a lot of the situations, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:50

Yeah. That now out here, you you you know, you can't you can't in the civil world now. There's no way you can tell somebody to, you know, shut the fuck up. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

You know, it just ended happening. No way, man. You know, so you might as well just start cleaning your desk or your work area because you're done. You're done.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:07

So so I like to stay in the field, you know. Um, I really do. I like to try to stay in the field, and I like I like I like to try to be on my team. I I can't it's hard for me to get to everybody because you know, we're doing San Antonio and everybody has their projects, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:22

It's a big area.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:23

So uh, but you know, I'll spend a day here, a day over there, a day over here, you know, and I just hit different project cycles.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:30

Uh the cool thing with my team is that uh uh most of our projects they come with their own offices. The contractor has to provide offices.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:37

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:38

So we'll just kind of hang out. Yeah, you know, I'll be with that inspector, we'll hang out in his office. If they got work, we'll be in the field, go there, and then you know, end the day at the office we could not cut all this paperwork. Yeah, yeah, kind of review what he does. Um, but for the most part, it's it's it's really great, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:56

And and it's working out, man. Like I mean, I I'm I'm really happy with some of these projects that are that are happening, that are starting out uh let's fortunate and then I think there's gonna be a huge improvement to the city, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:06

That's great, brother. I mean, happy, happy to hear that, man. Glad you're in a good position. Glad you're doing well. Hey, outside of work, though, what are you into, man? I know you I know you you I don't know. What do you guys call it out there in Texas? It's a little different, right? Do you barbecue? Do you smoke meat? What what do you call it out there? Like, what do you do? What's your specialty?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:22

So so uh uh here I call it barbecue. I call it barbecuing, and and I say there's a big difference. You got guys that barbecue and you got guys that grill.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:32

There you go.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:33

You can do both. Yeah, yeah. No, you can do both, you know, but but I I believe uh uh what we were doing, like to remember, you know, because we would have barbecues in California, right? It's basically grilled, right? Because we're doing like fajitas, right? We're doing five.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:47

It's basically grilling, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:48

Yeah, yeah. I call that grill.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:50

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:52

If somebody from California gets upset and they want to stay at their birth, by all means, you can call it what you want. I'm not gonna be able to get it. Hey, here we go. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:59

Hey, here we go again, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:02

So but yeah, so I I I fell in love probably about 10 years ago with barbecue.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:10

That was really uh uh low, slow, uh uh low and slow, you know, cooking, you know, a big chunk of meat. Uh here in Texas, uh brisket's king.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:19

I was gonna ask, is it brisket? Because I've seen your videos, bro, and it that shit looks delicious, brother.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:24

Yeah, brisket is is that's the king eye, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:29

If you're gonna if you're gonna tell me that you're uh you're you barbecue and you smoke meat and you you're not doing the brisket, you're you're you're you're I'm sorry that you're you're you're not barbecue. You're not on the same level yet. And there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:44

There's nothing wrong with that, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:46

Um because there's a lot of good guys that can do some ribs, they can do chicken. But if you want to, if you're if you want to carve yourself and you you really want to say it, you do barbecue, brisket, you gotta do it brisket.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:01

So man, it took me a long time to do one, man. It took me a long time to one to get the courage to do it, and then it took me probably about another good uh six to seven tries to where I felt like, okay, I can get one going, and I know it's gonna turn out good. You know, and then it probably took me another, you know, 10 to 12 tries where I'm like, okay, I know exactly how I'm gonna season it. Well, I know what I know what I know what to look for when I'm buying it. I know how I'm gonna trim it. Yeah, I know I'm gonna season it, and I know it's gonna come out great.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:32

It's an art, it's an art form, bro. It's an art.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:35

Uh yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

Hey, and what's that thing you had? Oh, real quick, sorry. What's that thing you had? And I saw one of your videos. Do you have like a thing you attach to the back of a truck or whatever? Is that a smoker or what was that thing? It's like a green. Yeah. Was that yours? I don't know. It was like a smoker or something. It was like a big old grill. It was like uh neon neon green or something.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:56

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, that that's the pit itself. It's on a off-road package.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

Okay, yeah. My bad. I just wanted to kind of if you wanted to talk about that or what what was that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:06

So so yeah, so so that's my smoker. It's an offset smoker. Uh uh shout out to Backline Fabs. Uh they're they're out there in uh I want to say he's in the driftwood area uh out here in Texas, Driftwood, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:20

Got it.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:21

Uh uh Backline Fab. There, there uh uh he makes custom pits.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:25

So I got that pit off of him. I actually won that pit in a raffle.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:29

Oh, damn. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:32

So it's an insulated firebox. Um, as you know, here uh the big thing is to get as much smoke, right, as possible you want it, right? But there's a difference from dirty smoke and clean smoke, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:45

So people say smoke, you know, we don't want to see that dark smoke that just kind of over when you over it, it burns your eyes.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:53

Yeah. Like when uh like when a building's burning.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:56

Yeah, yeah. We don't want to see that, right? You want to see when you look at that smokestack, right? Uh yeah, the chimney coming out of it. When you look at that smokestack, you want to be able to see through that to be translucent.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:08

Good to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:09

Um, that's kind of what you want to see. So uh with that cooker, man, like I said, it's an insulated firebox. I've had that thing for I don't know, about four years now.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:20

Yeah, four to five years, because because that's where I got it right when I uh uh started working with the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:26

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:27

So uh so I actually meant I actually took that thing to competitions, man. Uh I won uh at competitions. I didn't, you know, I wasn't never a grand champion, but but you won.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:38

You won nonetheless.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:39

But yeah, uh uh first competition I went to, it was uh up in uh uh Buda, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:46

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:46

Or Buda, however you want to call it, Buddha, Buda, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:49

We'll just call it Buddha.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:50

Um we took uh we took third place in brisket and second place in chicken.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:55

Not bad, brother. Not bad.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:56

Yeah, it was first competition, and it was with me and my brother. It was me and my brother and my cousin. Um, so again, shout out to them. We were our our our team name was called Dela Fuego, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

Oh, that's pretty that's pretty fire, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:11

Yeah, yeah, dude. Is that what we know? De la Fuego, man. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:16

That's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:18

My my brother David and my brother, uh my my cousin Robert. Robert actually stayed up all fucking night, dude, monitoring that fucking pit, dude. It stormed like crazy that night, dude. And and my brother hunkered down in his in his truck, and I I was I was exhausted, and Robert stayed out there, dude, attending the fire, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

Damn, what a trooper, bro. What a trooper.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:42

Yeah, dude, all night, dude. So shout out to shout out to him, man. We call him Bobby, but it didn't but his name is Yeah. Um But yeah, man, so so we we use it there, we won. It was great, it felt good. Um I and I just slowly started getting confident in it. But yeah, you want to see if you're starting out, man. Yeah, I always tell people if you if you start out and you want to cook a big chunk of meat, yeah, go up there, get yourself an inexpensive, inexpensive uh pork shoulder, or what's also in the store, it's probably called a pork butt. Okay, and it's gonna have a bone in it. Go in there, man. You don't gotta do any trimming to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:20

People are gonna tell you different.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:22

You can listen to them if you want, but for me, you don't gotta do nothing to it other than you're gonna see a fat, you're gonna see a fat side. Yeah. Put that fat side, throw it in your smoker, season how you want to season it, and put whatever rub you want to put on. Me personally, I always like to start off with just salt and pepper, the basics. I do whatever my whatever my favorite rub is that.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:44

And I know we say a rub, but we're not really rubbing it in. We're just throwing it on there and letting it letting it stay on there.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:51

I I usually season up my meats about an hour before I put them in the pit.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:55

Okay. Is that the rule is that kind of like the rule of thumb?

SPEAKER_05 1:19:58

I don't want to say everybody had everybody's different. That's my rule of thumb. Okay. And and I and I will tell you to do it. I do it an hour before because I personally feel that if you do it the night before, it draws out a lot of moisture. And and a lot of people say, oh yeah, but you didn't get the salt put back in there, so again, she leaks her own. I like to do it an hour before. Yeah. I think it works out great. Okay. And then I throw it in the smoke.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:25

That's good to know.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:26

Like I said, I did that. I won second place. I I I'm gonna stick with it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:32

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:32

And it went up against 15 teams, man. That's like second and our six seconds and third. So I want to keep yeah, that's impressive, man. I want to stick to what I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:41

Yeah, bro. You're making me hungry, man. You're making me hungry, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:44

So I always tell people, start out with that one's because it's inexpensive, right? Yeah. Uh uh pork is one of those meats that I'm sure your experience with that ground peach is just kind of skyrocketed.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:56

So uh, so I said get yourself a pork, pork shoulder, or also known as a pork butt, and uh and cook that. You can the reason I say cook that is because it's a practice one. Uh you're gonna you're gonna cook it, you're gonna look at it. The easiest thing is to know is because you're gonna cook it with that fat cap so you can see it. It's gonna look, it's gonna be on top, right? Smoke's gonna hit it. Once that fat cap what we call the fat cap, once it's splits in half, wrap it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:25

Damn.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:25

Go it in the good in the foil, wrap it up, and let it go again. Let it go. If you saw a thermometer once it hits 200 degrees, pull it out. It's gonna take some time, man. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:34

Oh, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:35

You're gonna want to keep your barbecue pit around 250. At first, you want to keep it at 250. Me personally, I like cooking at 275.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:45

From 275 to 300.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:47

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:47

That's where I like cooking. That's where I like cooking at. My pit likes cooking at 275 to 300. So I also dictate what the pit wants me. You know, I let I know the I feel like I have that kind of relationship with it. If that's where it likes to cook at, that's where I'm gonna cook at your whatever barbecue pit somebody else is cooking on, yeah, do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:07

Hey Marcus, do you do you talk to your pit?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

I was gonna say, do you talk to your pit? Do you talk to it? Do you give it like uh oh man, dude?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:16

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:18

Come on, baby.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:18

I I I park it in my garage, dude, and I every now and then I just go in there and sit down with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:23

Have a conversation.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:24

I gotta clean her up.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:26

You know, I'm like, mom man, I I haven't cleaned you up in uh, you know, in a couple of weeks. Let me just wipe you down.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:30

You're looking a little dirty, baby. I gotta clean you up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:33

So uh so I tell you, man, like like it is it is a real art for, man, and I yeah I absolutely fell in love with that, man. You know, uh that's my when I turn 55, that's kind of what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

Good, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:47

Something to look forward to until the the end of my time, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:50

Yeah, and that's what I was gonna ask you right now is like, what do you what does Marcus you know want? What are you looking forward to? What are your goals down the road? You know, right now it looks like you're in a good spot. You're enjoying, you're enjoying life, you're in a better place. What do you what what what is it you're looking forward to? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:08

I I absolutely I think um um um like I said, I want to be at the city till I'm about 55 years old. Yeah, and then I'm gonna retire from there. Um and then and then from there I want to open up my own, like, you know, I want to open up a barbecue shop.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:23

Oh, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:24

You know, whether it's uh whether it's a food truck.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:26

Um I I do want to do a food truck and I want to do that at 55. Um, because I I just feel like I I just 55 to me is just that that nice age to where I can get into another career, I could start something else, and start like what I really love doing, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:45

I love I love doing this what I'm doing for the city, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:47

But now I can be a little bit selfish now, right? I can do what I what I want to do, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:52

And nothing wrong with that, man. Nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:55

No. And uh and and I just want to share that barbecue, man. Uh um, our our name, you know, I do have a name, our barbecue name is 82 and you. Um, get 82 um when you when you add up all of our kids' birthdays and okay. Catherine's birthdays, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:13

Hey, do you have a link or something? Do you have a link that you can share or anything?

SPEAKER_05 1:24:17

I I I have it on, I do have it's I do have a Facebook page. Okay. It's 82 and you. Uh I'll I'll send it to you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:23

Yeah, if you don't mind sharing your link, man, I can post it when uh when this episode comes out and uh people can check it out, man. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:30

Yeah. So so uh it just happens that 82 kind of falls between uh I was born in 81, Captain's born in 83.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:39

So it just kind of like 82, it just it just kind of seemed very cool. The you part is me know basically my family and yours.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:47

Oh, that's cool, brother.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:48

You know?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:48

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:49

So uh uh so that's where I want to go, you know. Um I I like I said I actually love barbecuing. I uh favorite thing to barbecue, of course, is brisket. Um second, uh uh I don't know, uh you see the the beef dino ribs that everybody kind of talks about?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:04

Oh yeah, yeah, I've seen them. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:06

So I love I love cooking those, man. Those gotta be one of my favorites. Um and then I love pork ribs.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:12

Um I like pork ribs too. Uh I'll get those as a spare rib, and then I I I slice them, you know, I trim them down myself.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:21

Um I love doing them, and I have to love cooking pork ribs.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:24

There's you know, if if you're looking for if you don't have a lot of time, you know, I can do a good set of pork ribs in two hours, get them in, season them up, get them on a nice quick 300 degrees. Yeah, two hours, no wrap. Um, they come out looking candy red man at every time.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:42

Yeah. Um that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:44

Yeah, man. No, no. Uh chicken is another good favorite of mine. You know, I love barbecue chicken. You know, Catherine loves chicken, so uh, I do do a lot of that here at the house, man. But but yeah, that that's that that that's the that's the goal, man. That that that's the goal.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:59

That's good, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:00

Five years old. Sounds like a plan. I'm hoping one of my kids falls in love with it too, and they want to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:05

Why not?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:05

Why not?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:06

Or if not, you know, we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:10

Uh that's a that's what Junior tells me. Junior says he would do it with me, but we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:14

You know, um, I I don't know if I told you, but he's uh he's a Marine now, too. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:19

I've seen the I've seen the post. I I've seen him on Facebook and what are the socials. He's um I think it I think there was a picture of him he was getting ready for the Marine Corps ball, the big celebration. He had his dress blues on. He looks sharp, man. He looks sharp. He looks sharp.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:32

So so so he's getting ready again. He's stationed out in Louisiana now. Um I don't know where I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what unit it is exactly, but it's a wing.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:42

Is it a wing unit? Is it is it with the airway?

SPEAKER_05 1:26:44

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:45

Yeah, yeah. I remember picking up gear there when I was a PFT uh when I first came them running.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:49

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:50

And uh it was me and a sergeant. They flew us out there and we had to go get pick up some gear, and it was I was there for like two days. So I I I don't remember the base name or whatever it was called, but I've been there. I've been there.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:04

Yeah, yeah. And he he he loves it, man. But it is a week, it's a it's a it's a helicopter unit.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:08

Yeah, helicopter unit, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:10

And he's loving it, man. He he's loving it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:12

Yeah, so it was a good time.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:15

So uh uh so he's having fun with it. Um I'm glad that he's enjoying it. Uh but but I told him, Take, take, take his time, you know. Um, you know, you got time, man. Like I said, I I don't plan on leaving. Uh I don't plan doing anything until 55. Now, if something comes up, pops up that I can do something earlier, then maybe I will do that. But but the plan is is it's 55 to RQ uh full time.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:40

Oh man. You know I hope I hope it works and I'm sure it's gonna work out for you, man. I'm sure it will.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:45

Uh you know. And uh hey, real quick, man, before we before we end this this uh episode, real quick, uh just a couple little questions here for me and you. Hey, who got yelled at the most when we were in the Marine Corps? Was it me or you? I know we got I know we both got yelled at at some points and we got in trouble over the Marine Corps when we were sergeants. Who do you think I who do you remember getting yelled at more? You or me?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:05

I'm gonna have to say me.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:07

I would say so.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:09

I would have to say me, man, because what if it wasn't uh if it wasn't Ramos yelling at me because my I had some faded cabbies? Remember?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:17

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:19

It was that Master Guns yelling at me, man. I can't remember his name, but oh my god, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:24

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:24

I think he yelled at me off his side, man. But yeah, remember when Ramos got mad at my faded cabbies?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:30

I remember. I remember. Did she send you home? And shout out to Stasar and Ramos. Well, at the time, Stasar. I don't I don't know what she got out as, but um uh I believe she's out already, right? I believe she retired. Yeah, yeah, she's out. Yeah. Um, shout out to her. Um, but yeah, she I don't know, I think she sent you home, right? To go change or something. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:49

Yeah, and I was like, yo, what did we change? I said, what's I remember I called and I said, well, this freaking uniform I weren't just in Iraq. I wasn't we weren't on we brought word on the drill field, ain't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:29:00

Hey, uh these are field camis, man. Aren't we gonna do some field work? You know, we are field lining, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:05

Yeah, hey, who had the cleanest gear, man, between you and I, the cleanest gear? When we go out of the field, whatever, who had the cleanest gear?

SPEAKER_05 1:29:12

Oh my god, dude. I don't know. I'm gonna have to say you, man. I didn't I didn't mind a little bit, I'm I didn't mind getting dirty, man. I'm gonna have to say you you probably I think I was more meticulous, huh? You know what's funny is uh is is who actually makes the Marines to clean the gear the both that was you, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:30

You would make them clean the gear more than me, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:33

Well, I mean we we had to, man. We had to do something.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:36

We had to, but man, we used we used to get into the I mean I I I I missed some of that. Obviously, you know, we got into it, you know, and and we got in we got carried away sometimes. We got it, we got caught up in the moment, but man, we used to have some yell yelling fests. And we used to get the Marines out there cleaning gear. I mean, when they when they would piss us off, when they did something wrong, oh they were they were gonna have a bad day. They were gonna have a bad day.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was off.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:02

I think they knew it. I think they did it on purpose.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:05

I think so. I think so. Hey uh, worse worst MRE, for those of you who don't know, there's those little those called the meal ready to eat. It's like those meals that uh military people get, and it's kind of like um, I don't know, like the ones that astronauts eat, so similar to that. Uh what was your what was the worst MRE in your opinion, man?

SPEAKER_05 1:30:26

Worst MRE for me was uh it was it might have I don't know how old it is now, but I think it was new for us. But it was that burrito, that bean burrito.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:36

Oh yeah, that thing was garbage. That thing was drinking.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:40

It was slimy, it was it was horrible, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:44

Yeah, it was bad. For me, it was the beef stew. I hated the beef stew, bro.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:48

Oh man, I love that one, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:50

Oh, dude. I hated the beef.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:52

The beef stew and the uh uh chicken and rice.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:56

The chicken and rice was good, man. Chicken and rice was good.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:58

Chicken and rice was my favorite, dude. That was my favorite, dude. But oh my god, though. The burrito, um the burrito and then the the wingies, dude, the five figures. Oh man, I hated it. There was some bad ones, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:10

There were some bad ones, man. There was some bad ones. I I used to love the pound cake, though. The little dessert pound cake.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:16

That thing was that thing was uh I don't I think it was like the vanilla one or whatever. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:20

Yeah, there was one of those, but remember they had an orange one too. They did.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:24

That was good. And then later on, they start they started getting creative, bro. They started getting like chicken chow mean, and they they started coming out with these ridiculous ones like the pasta, like a fettuccino alfredo or whatever. Um, but man, it just kind of got me thinking of like speaking about food. We had some horrible food out there in the field, man. I just remember like we would throw away. I didn't eat much of it. I would really live off of like beef jerky most of the time or something else because it was disgusting, man. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:53

Who was that one Marine that would have that would always have beef jerky on him?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:56

Oh man, I don't. It was oh well, I had it all the time too, but hey, you did too. You you had beef jerky too, and you you had the big red or whatever. The big red.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:04

Yeah, yeah, big red, big red. That was it, man. I I was so happy when it started playing on bait. Yeah, because wasn't it Jacob or Jacoby?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:11

It was probably Hakovo, right? That was his name, Hakovo.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He live, I think he lived, he lived out in Henade or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:18

I think so. He's he's a sheriff, bro. He's a sheriff.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:20

Yeah, yeah, I know he's a sheriff now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:23

And he's into like he's big time into martial arts now. Like uh, he does like jujitsu or something, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:29

Oh shit, that's a badass, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:30

Yeah, and uh, yeah, but I yeah, I think he was the one that had the the um the beef jerky and the pork grinds. The pork grinds. Remember the pork grinds?

SPEAKER_05 1:32:38

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:39

Silva, remember Silva?

SPEAKER_05 1:32:40

It was him, him, Silva, and Urban, right? Like they were the it was entry that always hung out to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:46

That was a little trio, bro, that used to hang out and always get in trouble, man. The corporals. Yeah, the corporals, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:53

I remember that night, dude. There were some good guys, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:57

Yeah, good guys, man. Um, yeah, man. Well, hey man, I I want to just say tell you, man, thank you for for taking the time to to, you know, I know it's a day where you should be with your family. Um, and I I just want to just give you the the the gratitude. Um, I know that we don't, you know, we don't talk all the time, or it's actually been a while since we talked like this, but it's it's it's a pleasure, man. I I had a great time here having a conversation, you know, reliving some of the moments, um, and just you being able to share some personal stuff with with me, man. I I really appreciate that, man. Um, you know, I thought it man. Yeah, and uh hey, we're gonna keep doing more episodes and hopefully we can get you back on. Um next time I think we're gonna have we're I'm working on my video, bro. I um I just got some high-end cameras that I that I'm gonna start uh kind of looking into that. So the goal is to get get on video, bro, eventually. Here sure soon. So I would love to get you back, bro. Uh and do a video um you know episode. If you're down for it, we can we can have we can we can talk about anything, bro. This is what this is what this platform's for. Talk about life, talk about whatever, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:06

But yeah, I just wanted to say thanks. We could kid chat, yeah, and we could grill something, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:14

Yeah, maybe next time, hey, if we get if we got you, if I got you on video next time, hey, maybe we could be exactly you could be grilling and you can do like a play by play or whatever and and kind of share a little bit about what you're doing. That'd be great, brother. That'd be great, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:28

Yeah, that would be. That would be pretty cool, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:29

Yeah. Any uh any I'm I'm glad, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:33

I'm glad we already catch I'm glad we were to catch up. You know, I'm I know we we chit chat on like social media.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:40

But but talking like this, I'm glad we were gonna do it at this time, at this moment, uh on this type of uh uh network.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:01

Yeah, that's what it's all about, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:03

It's a big part of you, man. Uh uh, I I don't think I ever told you this, but you and your wife played a big part of our our lives as well, man. So thank you guys for that as well, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:13

Oh man, I appreciate that, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:14

It was even though we like I said, we we did have some really good times, we did party heart, but man, we had some really good emotional times.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:22

Oh man, oh yeah, dude. You know, I mean we didn't get into that, but uh yeah, for sure. We we shared a lot of um moments that were were rough and and you know very challenging and uh you know emotional yeah, we could say those were for the part two episode, man. Yeah, man. That's that's gonna get into the nitty-gritty, bro, into the the deep stuff. But yeah, man. Uh yeah, thanks again, brother. Um, like I said, really enjoyed this episode. And uh, you know, for those of you out there listening, you know, we're on Amazon, Apple, we're on Spotify. So check it out. You know, I know for those of you that are in Texas in Texas, uh, you know, support my boy out there with his barbecuing and everything when he's out there. And uh yeah, man, much appreciated, man. And um any any last words, man?

SPEAKER_05 1:36:10

Uh you know what, man? Last words would probably be if you're if if you're if you're a vet out there, any vet out there, man, just just keep on keep pushing, man. Yeah, there I promise you, there's light at the end of that hell.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:26

Well said, man. Well said.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:27

There's light at the end of that though.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:28

Yeah, man. All right. Well, thank you. That's it for today. Uh until next time, appreciate it. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to help support future episodes, you can check out the link in the show notes. Your support helps keep the podcast going, and it's greatly appreciated. Also, please leave a review and share with friends. That's Sergio Says It Straight, where the truth comes out. Whether we planned it or not, catch you next time.