Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Bam. We’re live. I started a couple minutes early today. I wanted to share something with you guys. I’ve been having some great conversations in my dms. What’s up, dude?
Dale King (00:13):
Hey, your voice sounds better.
Sevan Matossian (00:15):
Oh, it does. Okay, good. I, I, I actually woke up this morning with no sore throat. I, um, a lot of, a lot of you been questioning me like, why am I defending the liver king? Or How come I’m not going out the liver king or whatever. I, first of all, I don’t think I’m defending him, but, but it’s really stirred up, stirred up some fun, uh, ideas in my head. Probably my, my closest friends in the world, several of my closest friends in the world, these are people, like if my wife kicked me outta the house, I could go sleep on their couch. And I’m very fortunate to have a lot of those people. And fortunate, my, I don’t think my wife would do that to me. Uh, they don’t have any integrity, and I’m not worried about the integrity of other people. For the most part, zero. I’m worried about my own integrity. I’m only worried about my own integrity. I don’t project my integrity. I don’t need other people around me to have integrity, except for very few cases.
(01:18):
Integrity is something that I work on so that I can be free in the world. I’m only concerned about my own honesty. I’m not concerned about other people’s honesty. Some of my nicest, most compassionate friends in the entire world have almost no integrity. They don’t even know what it is. I remember when I didn’t know what it was, I would’ve never met Dave Castro. I wouldn’t know what integrity is. I’m not worried about Dave’s integrity. I’m worried about what I can learn from him so that I can have integrity so I can flow more easily in the world. I guarantee you Dale knows a shitload of people who have zero integrity. And do you know what tool he uses? That dwarfs integrity? 10 out of 10 times every day of the fucking week. How you pick your friends, people who have compassion. That’s a fucking, now we’re talking about a real noble trait. Compassion. What is compassion? Yeah. You wanna take a shot at that
Dale King (02:18):
<laugh> man,
Sevan Matossian (02:19):
As I just put you on this
Dale King (02:21):
Good fucking more. In America,
Sevan Matossian (02:23):
There’s some tools that you use to look at yourself with, and there’s some you use to judge other people with. When you’re walking down aisle L seven in your five foot five, and you can’t reach something on the top, I judge people by their height. I see fucking Caleb walking by six two, and I say, Hey, can you get me that box of soap? I’m not worried about, I’m not worried. <laugh>, you got it. Thank you. Caleb. Uh, beaver, Dale King.
Dale King (02:47):
Oh, I know Caleb <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (02:49):
I just, uh, there’s, I’m not here to, I’m not, let me give you an example of my friend. So many of my friends are nice and they compromise their integrity because they want to be nice. It’s like, it’s like the entire left where I come from. Everyone is so fucking nice, but they’ll lie through their teeth to you not to hurt your feelings.
(03:11):
And, uh, anyway, I just want, we’ll, we’ll talk more about that, uh, as as time goes on. But there are traits that I really, uh, I, I, I’m, I’m a huge fan of cultivating my own integrity, but I have some really dishonest friends who, my greatest friends in the world, and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Why would I care if someone lied to me? Now, you can think of some circumstances. I don’t want them to tell me the light is green when it’s red and I step on the gas and get fucking hit. But, uh, but, but a lot of shit, a lot of these tools and things we talk about, they’re there to work on yourself. The Bible’s a beautiful book. When you pointed at yourself, it’s fucking evil as fuck. When you pointed at other people, you wanna set men, free men should feel free around you. And safe, not, not, not held to your, uh, uh, judgment. There’s this dow saying, trust people and they become trustworthy. I, I’ve seen it happen. Hi Dale. I tried to get on here a few minutes early to get through my ramp before you got
Dale King (04:19):
On. No. Hey man. I wish I was there from the beginning.
Sevan Matossian (04:23):
Yeah, well, you heard most of it.
Dale King (04:25):
That is fantastic. How are you Caleb? Good to see you buddy.
Caleb Beaver (04:30):
Good to see you too. It’s
Dale King (04:31):
Been a while. Are we, uh, operationally secured? Are we allowed to say where you’re at or how’s that go,
Caleb Beaver (04:37):
<laugh>? No, we just say we’re in an undisclosed location for now, so
Sevan Matossian (04:41):
Different time zone.
Dale King (04:43):
Gotcha, man. Little warm before I launch into what the hell we’re getting ready into, man, I’m fucking proud of you and, uh, thanks for what you do, man.
Caleb Beaver (04:52):
Thank you, Dale. I appreciate that.
Sevan Matossian (04:56):
So there’s this gym, it’s called CrossFit psk C and a bunch of people are telling me how cool it is. So I reached out to CrossFit p uh, PS p skc, and uh, I said, Hey, would you like to come on my podcast? And I know Dale and Dale goes, uh, Seon. I’m like, what? He goes, this is Dale. I like, oh, well that worked out. <laugh>. That worked out nicely. Yeah,
Dale King (05:21):
I thought you got hacked
Sevan Matossian (05:25):
<laugh>. You start selling fair assessment. Fair
Dale King (05:27):
Assessment.
Sevan Matossian (05:30):
Uh, Portsmouth, Ohio, arguably the opioid capital of the world at some point. Or at least, uh, that was, um, you know, that definitely of Ohio, you know, when you say like, that’s the prettiest girl in my college. And someone’s like, you said that yesterday. You’re like, yeah, there’s like 200 of them here. <laugh>, unfortunately, it’s like that with cities that are like murder capitals and op opioid capitals. There’s, there’s a handful of ’em that are like the nu tied for number one. Yeah.
Dale King (06:02):
It’s very time dependent as well. But we, we are definitely at one point the pill mill capital of America for sure.
Sevan Matossian (06:08):
Did you coin that term pill mill?
Dale King (06:10):
No. Uh, that was bit, that was around for, for a while. I think that started coming out in the late nineties.
Sevan Matossian (06:16):
I liked it. I I was watching your, uh, I don’t know if it was, I watched a bunch of your interviews. I don’t know if it was on Fox or your Ted Talk, but when I heard that, I was like, oh, that, that has a nice ring to it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the Pill Mill. A Pill mill is an illegal facility that resembles a regular pain clinic, but Reg regularly prescribes painkillers without sufficient medical history. Oh, shit. I didn’t even know it had a term like this physical examination diagnosis, medical monitoring and documentation. I, when you said pill mill, I just thought it was just like tongue in cheek.
Dale King (06:47):
No, no, it was, it was definitely a real thing. And um, unfortunately, the guy who developed that business model was here in Portsmouth in the nineties.
Sevan Matossian (06:57):
Oh shit.
Dale King (06:58):
Yep. So
Sevan Matossian (06:59):
When you say business model, it’s illegal, right? It’s like saying, my buddy grows weed and sells it illegally. He developed that model.
Dale King (07:05):
It’s illegal now. At the time it was not illegal. Um, so, you know, we have a lot of things kind of coinciding at that period in history. Um, but, you know, the Sackler family started just dumping millions of, of pain pills, Oxy cods. Um, and then they really kinda got connected with physicians who, cuz they have to be the pushers of their product. And the easiest way to do it is, uh, open up a pain clinic and you get people to come in and say, Hey, does your back hurt? And you’re kinda like nodding them through the process. And if they got a hundred bucks cash, they, they leave with a script full of Oxy.
Sevan Matossian (07:46):
Wow. Wow. I’m glad I never found out about one of those places.
Dale King (07:52):
Yeah. Yeah, man. Uh, it, it really, there’s, there’s a couple really good, um, pieces of media to read and watch. The first, first one’s called Dreamland, um, that’s by Sam s and that’s really kind of viewed as the, the standard when it talks about telling the story of how the opioid crisis happened in America. And, uh, dreamland refers to Dreamland Pool, which was here in Portsmouth. Um, it was like your quintessential small town American gathering place, um, through the eighties and nineties. And then it closed down, and then the book kind of highlights what happened after that pool closed down. And the devastation from, from the opioid crisis, from their out. But
Sevan Matossian (08:41):
Like a local pool where all the kids go swimming in the summer.
Dale King (08:44):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (08:46):
Hey, and what’s the second movie?
Dale King (08:48):
Uh, well, I think everyone’s kind of more familiar with this. It’s on Hulu. Um, dope Sick,
Sevan Matossian (08:56):
Dope sick. And and you’re, you’re the executive producer of a movie. Has that movie been finished? Um,
Dale King (09:03):
We just,
Sevan Matossian (09:04):
Strong town, what is it? Strong
Dale King (09:06):
Small town. Strong
Sevan Matossian (09:07):
Small town strong.
Dale King (09:08):
Yep. We just got the rough cut this morning, the final cut this morning. Um, and congrats. Thanks, man. Dude, by the way, like, I’ve got a small glimpse into what your world has been, I assume the last 20 years as far as production and documentary. Holy shit, man. That’s a, that is a wild, bizarre, chaotic, insane world. Um, but we got the final cut done, and we’re hoping, we’re hoping to submit to, uh, Tribeca Film Festival within the next week or two to get in there.
Sevan Matossian (09:43):
I was concerned for you when I saw you were the executive producer, because movies are not a, I don’t know how to say it,
Dale King (09:54):
But this way I’ve written off what I’ve invested in and just
Sevan Matossian (09:59):
<laugh>, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a tough road to tow for, for every second counts. Um, when I made that, well, we, we finished filming that, uh, 2008 right after the Games of Aromas, and I worked on that. No exaggeration. I think I may have even been conservative 12 hours a day every day for six months. Yep. Just sitting in front of my computer. It was crazy.
Dale King (10:20):
Yep. That’s, that’s my buddy’s life right now. Yeah. He’s the, he’s the other exec. He’s the director on it. And, uh, luckily it timed him right to where he could, he’s devoting literally every waking second to, to get it done.
Sevan Matossian (10:33):
And this is Chase and Spencer Millsap?
Dale King (10:35):
Yep. So it’s Chase Milsap. He’s a great fucking guy, man. He’s a, he’s got his own wild story, but he was a Naval Academy grad, uh, was a Marine Corps officer, decided that Marine Corps wasn’t cool enough, so he, he jumped services to become a Green Beret officer.
Sevan Matossian (10:53):
Wow.
Dale King (10:54):
And then, um, married a girl that I went to high school with.
Sevan Matossian (10:59):
Wow. Was is he born in Port Smith?
Dale King (11:01):
No, he’s a, he’s a Texas kid.
Sevan Matossian (11:03):
Wow. Small world
Dale King (11:05):
Dude. And it, and it, so, uh, long story, we ended up going on Shark Tank and he, he and his wife were living in Hollywood and he kinda, I went out there and that was the first time I met him in 2016. And we, we became best friends ever since then.
Sevan Matossian (11:22):
Why, why did you meet him when you went out there for Shark Tank?
Dale King (11:25):
So his wife, Myla was the girl I went to high school with, and they’re like, Hey. She was always like, Hey, if you’re ever in LA or Hollywood, oh, okay. Come out and hang out. And so that’s how we hooked up.
Sevan Matossian (11:36):
How old are you?
Dale King (11:38):
I am, I’ll be 42 next month.
Sevan Matossian (11:40):
Oh, okay. Alrighty. Um, where were you? You’re born in Portsmouth?
Dale King (11:45):
Born and raised, my friend.
Sevan Matossian (11:47):
And, and what’s the population there?
Dale King (11:49):
The city is around 20,000. The county’s like 75,000.
Sevan Matossian (11:54):
Wow. So tiny county. So maybe not. Is there even a city in the county or is it all just incorporated?
Dale King (12:00):
No, it, Portsmouth is the, the capital of the county, if you will.
Sevan Matossian (12:04):
So there are no cities in there.
Dale King (12:05):
There’s like,
Sevan Matossian (12:07):
By cities, I mean, no one has their own police department. It’s just all one. Like in, in California we have counties, and then within them they have their own shit. But when you only have 75,000 people in the county, I’m guessing you don’t do that.
Dale King (12:18):
You we have, uh, the Portsmouth Police Department and then everything out in the county is the sheriff’s.
Sevan Matossian (12:23):
Okay.
Dale King (12:24):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (12:25):
Wow. 75,000 maybe pull out a little bit more. Kayla, I wanna see like, where it is like compared to like Columbus or any of the cities that I know. Oh, they’re Cincinnati.
Dale King (12:35):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (12:37):
Oh, and there’s Columbus. What south what, what state is that? South of there.
Dale King (12:41):
We’re right on the border of Kentucky.
Sevan Matossian (12:44):
Okay. Wow. Okay. Yeah. I’ll, I’ll say you’re Kentucky then
Dale King (12:51):
<laugh>? I prefer the, the term Appalachian American.
Sevan Matossian (12:55):
Okay, that’s fair. That’s fair. Where are, wait, what, where are the Appalachian Mountains? They’re, are they, they’re further east of you?
Dale King (13:02):
They’re a little, yeah, they’re
Sevan Matossian (13:03):
A little sunny. Oh, you’re at the base of ’em kind. Oh, okay. Okay. Yep.
Dale King (13:07):
Like we’re, we’re in, we’re considered tri-state area. So Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia.
Sevan Matossian (13:12):
How old is, uh, Portsmouth Ports? Portsmith,
Dale King (13:15):
I wanna say like 1883. It was incorporated or maybe 43.
Sevan Matossian (13:22):
How did your parents end up there,
Dale King (13:25):
Man? Um, so my dad was born out in the sticks. So my dad’s, my dad’s 85, so he was way a little older when, when I came around, um, was born out in this town called Stockdale, which I don’t know, has probably eight people in it. Um, and then my mom was, was born in Midford. Both of these places are, are in the county. And, uh, dad served the military for a long time. My mom was a nurse. Um, dad has a whole other, uh, first family out in the west coast. He did like, was rancher for a while, has this all kinds of crazy stories. But, um, <laugh> got a divorce from his first wife and basically just kind of like, gave everything and moved back home to, uh, to Portsmouth.
Sevan Matossian (14:17):
Oh, so his fa his his, his family. How did his family, do you know how your grandparents ended up there? How do you end up somewhere like that?
Dale King (14:24):
I do, uh, I only know as far as my parents go. Okay. It gets, we go, we go down a whole other, uh, hillbilly rabbit hole when we’re talking like, uh, parent great grandparents and great grandparents.
Sevan Matossian (14:35):
Do you know what ethnicity you are?
Dale King (14:38):
Uh, hillbilly man. I have no fucking idea where, where, uh, where the blood comes from.
Sevan Matossian (14:45):
Yeah. Okay. It, it, it’s interesting because the people in the south, there’s a lot, lot of French people down there, right. I mean, like Louisiana and whatnot. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that’s, those are, you know, French col colonists that came over. Right. Ohio doesn’t have something like that. Like Portsmouth isn’t just all people from Denmark or No,
Dale King (15:02):
No. It’s, it’s a good mix of, of everybody.
Sevan Matossian (15:05):
And I’m guessing that when your, when your dad was a kid, there were 1000 people who lived there in dirt roads.
Dale King (15:11):
Uh, it probably actually, when he was growing up, so we’re talking fifties now, the population was significantly higher.
Sevan Matossian (15:19):
Oh. Because of like, some sort of an industry that was
Dale King (15:22):
There. Yeah. So now we’re talking like the heyday of like steel mill, coal plants, shoe factories, the whole deal. So I’d say it was, um, significantly higher than it is now.
Sevan Matossian (15:34):
Uh, Ohio initially colonized by French fur traders, Ohio became a British colony possession following the French and Indian War in 1750 fourth end of the American Revolution, Britain seceded control of the territory to the newly formed, uh, United States and Incorporat. Okay, interesting. And, um, how many, do you know how many stoplights you have in your town? Is it one of those towns where, you know how many
Dale King (15:52):
No, we, we, it’s, uh, we, we’ve got, we’ve got several stoplights,
Sevan Matossian (15:57):
Several,
Dale King (15:58):
No Chipotle, but we got
Sevan Matossian (15:59):
Several. You don’t have to brag, dude, I’m just asking simple questions. You don’t have to get all puffy chested
Dale King (16:03):
On me. We, uh, you know, we’ll eat some chicken outta the sheets gas station, you know what I’m saying?
Sevan Matossian (16:07):
Oh yes. Nice. Yes. Hey, Dale, do you know who Travis be is?
Dale King (16:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (16:14):
So he lives in West Virginia and the first time I went out there. Oh, okay. Wow. Okay. So it is developed.
Dale King (16:19):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (16:22):
And that’s a river there. Oh no, no, that’s just, that is river.
Dale King (16:24):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That’s the Ohio River.
Sevan Matossian (16:26):
Wow. Okay. So, so I was making a movie in, I don’t know, 2003 or four called Pulling John about professional arm wrestling. And I went out there, Travis was one of the characters, and I went out there and I had never seen anything like that at the point. And he’s like, Hey, let’s go out to dinner. And we took our families out to dinner and we went to Sheets and they had, it was a gas station and they had little, like two or three little tables in there and like, we just like ordered hotdog or some shit, or chicken, like you said. It was crazy.
Dale King (16:52):
That’s
Sevan Matossian (16:53):
Fine cuisine. It’s not a gas station restaurant, it’s a gas station with tables inside. It. It, I was like, wow, this is some ghetto shit.
Dale King (17:00):
<laugh> delicious.
Sevan Matossian (17:03):
Yeah. And then we traveled 30 miles to a Waffle house to go real
Dale King (17:06):
Big <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (17:07):
So nuts.
Dale King (17:08):
It’s a different world, man.
Sevan Matossian (17:10):
Yeah, it is Such a different world. So, so you’re born there and what do you do there? What do you do there as a kid? You, do you have siblings?
Dale King (17:16):
I have an older sister, yeah. She’s three years older than me.
Sevan Matossian (17:20):
And, and, uh, so you’re born there and, uh, pretty nor normal childhood.
Dale King (17:24):
Yeah, it was great. Uh, childhood revolved around sports, hanging out with friends, um, just like your typical small town America
Sevan Matossian (17:34):
Riding bike, stay at night. Were
Dale King (17:37):
At by where the bikes were at in the yard. Um, just a really good, really cool small town vibe. Everybody knows each other. Everybody has each other’s back.
Sevan Matossian (17:45):
Cool. Drink a lot of Kool-Aid. Tang
Dale King (17:48):
<laugh>. That’s right. Yeah. Some sunny d you know what I mean?
Sevan Matossian (17:51):
Yeah. Save money and, and dilute the orange juice times six. Oh yeah. Every kid on the block can have some. And then at some point you decided to go into the, uh, US military.
Dale King (18:03):
Yep. So I graduated in 99 from high school and uh, was fortunate enough I applied and got a Army ROTC scholarship. Uh, so I went up to Columbus, to the big city. Uh, went to school at small school called Capital University. And uh, so I knew in 99 I, that’s the route I wanted to take was to go be in the military. And then, um, nine 11 happened my, I think it was my junior year, yeah, my junior year. And, uh, so we all knew wasn’t pretend anymore. Like we were, we were gonna go get after it when we all graduated.
Sevan Matossian (18:39):
Tell me what ROTC is.
Dale King (18:41):
Uh, reserve officer Training Core. So it’s like, so, uh, Caleb can chime into, but there’s, there’s a couple paths to become an officer in the military. Um, I think everybody’s familiar with the academy. Uh, the second way is rotc. So basically, uh, if you get a scholarship, whatever branch of the military will pay for your school and like, you’re kind of like a part time-ish. You’re learning leadership basically while you’re in, in college. And then you’ll fulfill your active duty service obligation upon graduation. And then the third way is to be to go to Officer Candidate school and get, earn your commission that way.
Sevan Matossian (19:23):
Because I would see those guys around campus when I was in school. The ROTC guys, they always stuck together. They dressed different. I can’t re but, but, and they had their own little building. This was at uc, Santa Barbara.
Dale King (19:33):
Yep. Yep.
Sevan Matossian (19:34):
So basically when you see those kids on campus, those are kids who are doing four years of college and then immediately they’re going into the military. Yes. Any specific branch or all all the different branches.
Dale King (19:42):
All all branches have rotc and then it’s really kind of up to that kid to determine which branch you wants to go into. But yeah. The day you graduate college, you, you commissioned as an officer the same day.
Sevan Matossian (19:53):
And and why did you choose that path? Was it, um, because your dad was in the military?
Dale King (19:57):
I’d say that has a lot to do with it. Um, and I just really, I, you know, was indoctrinated by Chuck Norris and Rambo movies growing up and you know, I’d always look at all my dad’s old military shit. And to me that was just like the way, um, that’s what I wanted to do.
Sevan Matossian (20:18):
You weren’t scared?
Dale King (20:20):
No man. Uh, no. I was like more, more excited. Like this is, this is, this is to me, like we come from a, a family of, of service. I had a lot of, uh, uncles that served in World War ii, Vietnam. And so, um, I just never wanted to sit around and not have a story to tell when I got older, I guess.
Sevan Matossian (20:43):
Interesting. I obviously grew up in California and I think I was,
(20:50):
I was always afraid, you know, like, you know, when you turn 18, all of us have to register for the draft. So I went down to the post office even though there was no chance of me getting going, but I think I was terrified. Like, oh shit, what if I have to do that? Isn’t it interesting that, and and it was definitely how I was raised culturally in California. I don’t think I was alone like that. Not that there weren’t, you know, guys that weren’t pussies, but I think there were a lot of us that were just like scared.
Dale King (21:16):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s like, it’s like one of those things. Some, some people go in the military cuz it’s a last resort. Um, some people feel called to do it, man. Like yeah, I watched my dad grow up and he never once actually, I told him I was gonna enlist when I was like 15 or 16 and he <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (21:37):
He, why are you laughing Caleb?
Caleb Beaver (21:39):
Cause I told my parents the same thing and my dad just got shit a
Dale King (21:43):
Break. Yeah, exactly. So my, my dad was an enlisted guy, uh, for, for 14 years. And he did, uh, he did a tour or two to Vietnam and uh, he was like, no, you’re not enlisting. I don’t care what you think you’re going to do, but you’re not gonna enlist. And I’d even like gone to the recruiters and uh, and I was gonna be a Marine probably cuz that’s like they had the coolest shit at the time.
Sevan Matossian (22:06):
Yeah. Their commercials were cool as shit. I definitely like their commercials. You
Caleb Beaver (22:09):
Got a so dude, come on.
Dale King (22:11):
Yeah. Like, fucking killing a dragon. How do you not wanna do that? Yeah. And so I, I, you know, you get a whole swag bag full of shit, uh, when you leave. And I put like the Marine Corps bumper sticker on my dad’s car. Wow. Um, which was, which my dad was in the army and uh,
Sevan Matossian (22:30):
He loved that
Dale King (22:31):
<laugh>. That’s awesome. And uh, the next day I looked back and that sure shit that some bitch was like wiped right off of there. And he was like, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you’re definitely not going to enlist. He’s like, if, if you want to go in, like you’re gonna go in as an officer. Which meant nothing to me. I I had no different, I had no idea what conceptually what the difference was, but
Sevan Matossian (22:51):
Right. I’ve heard, I’ve had it explained to me a hundred times and I still don’t know. I just like, everyone’s like, I went as an officer, I went in and listened. I’m like, yeah, you, you went in and that’s it, that’s all I know. You went to Disney. I don’t care if you got the season pass or fucking bought your shit into it.
Dale King (23:05):
<laugh>. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (23:07):
Okay. So so you go in there and, and how and how, and so immediately when you, like you said nine 11 happened, so immediately, even though you’re not in yet, you know that Oh shit. The ant hill has been shaken and dudes are now leaving overseas to do shit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you’re not going into, uh, a training camp. You’re going into a a, a path to a deployment. Right? Yep. Obviously everyone then that’s like predominantly what happened to people. And tell me about that. Tell me about, so what year do you go in and, and how quickly are you, uh, trained to deploy?
Dale King (23:43):
So, oath to summer of oh three, um, I was com I was in the army now. And then you, depending on what you do within the branch that you’re doing, you’re gonna go to like a, a school to learn more about that functional area of the military essentially. Um, so I went to uh, military intelligence officer, basic course down in Arizona. And then at that point you’re like getting your first assignment. So when you’re done with your course, it’s like, okay, what unit are you gonna be a part of? And I was honestly like just trying to get on the next unit going out. Um, and there came a really, you
Sevan Matossian (24:23):
You were, you were hungry to deploy.
Dale King (24:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I didn’t wanna miss it, you know, cause uh, it was like, cuz now you depending on generationally when you enter the army, it’s like, okay, now we got a war going on. Like, this is why we joined and you sure as fuck, don’t wanna miss it like this. Right. You don’t wanna, you don’t wanna miss that plane going out. So you’re, you’re doing whatever you can to figure out who’s going where.
Sevan Matossian (24:48):
Yeah. Caleb told me if I recall, sorry if I misrepresent you, Caleb. Caleb, when he said he was going, I’m like, why are you doing that? He’s, cause I applied to leave. I’m like, are you fucking
Caleb Beaver (24:56):
<laugh> <laugh>? I asked for it.
Dale King (24:59):
Yeah, yeah. Well, the thing is, it’s like, um, you don’t, I mean, at least for me, it’s like if you went in, like you don’t want to be all the way to like the five yard line and not try to score. You know what I mean? Um,
Sevan Matossian (25:14):
And Dave explained it to me like this too. I’m paraphrasing and sorry Dave, but I, I, I remember one time he had to come home for something, I can’t remember what, and he was pissed. And I go, dude, what’s the problem? And he goes, dude, I’m, it’s like being a firefighter trained to put out fires and then all of a sudden you find out there’s never gonna be another fucking fire. It’s like, I trained for this. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I need to get back over there. And he, he hated the fact that he, he felt like he was letting his friends down.
Dale King (25:39):
Yeah. That’s a huge part of it. Um, like actually once you get assigned to your unit and now you train with these guys and, and if they’re going and you don’t go, man, like that’s like for whatever reason now some guys will scam, like, they’ll find ways not to deploy. Uh, there’s, there’s guys out there like that. But if that’s what you want, man, like you’re, you’re doing everything you can to, to get over there. Um, so there was a cool opportunity, um, that, um, so I was an Intel guy and they were like 10 Special forces group had an opportunity for an intel officer to join, to join their unit. So I was like, fuck, that’s what I wanna do. Like put me, put me on that. And uh, so I showed up there, showed up there in late 2003, four, something like that. And, uh, by, I was on going, we were going to Iraq in November of oh four.
Sevan Matossian (26:35):
Wow. And, and this, um, this 10 special forces group that what is that? And is that’s a good group to go with you. There’s other, other paths and you intelligence guy could have been put somewhere that’s ass and just you’re like, oh, this, these are gonna
Dale King (26:48):
Go with, so an intel, an intel guy’s, like a combat support guy. So basically that means, um, our specialty can go to any unit. Right. And, and assist them in their intelligence operations.
Sevan Matossian (26:59):
Are you the little green guy with the radio on the back that I had had all those Army? You’re the one with the
Dale King (27:05):
<laugh> that would, I mean, if that’s the best analogy we got, that would uh, that would,
Sevan Matossian (27:11):
We’ll start there. We’ll start there. Educate,
Dale King (27:12):
We’ll start there for sure. Um, and Intel guys, straight outta school had not been allowed to go to, um, special Forces Group since Vietnam. So I was like, fuck, sign me up, let’s roll. And they’re literally,
Sevan Matossian (27:27):
And basically what that means is when you say special forces for people who don’t know, I think what he’s saying is special forces are the guys who get their hands dirty. And so like, you could have been put with a unit who’s like, Hey, watch that, watch that car park. And you could have been there for three years doing dick. Yeah. Special forces are being, they’re like out there doing shit and you’re like, oh, these guys are gonna be active. That’s why you were excited.
Dale King (27:47):
Yes. That’s And it, yes, a hundred percent. Okay. Um, and they’re literally, so everybody kind of throws the term special forces around as if like that’s Navy Seals and they’re, there’s special operations, right? They’re special
Sevan Matossian (28:03):
Operations. Okay. Special operations.
Dale King (28:05):
Right. And like seals are a part of a special operations unit. Uh, United States Army Special Forces is actually Green Berets. What they’re, what they’re known as.
Sevan Matossian (28:14):
I apologize. No, no, no. A lot it’s been explained to me. No,
Dale King (28:17):
No, no, you’re not, no, no need to apologize. And you have like rangers and then like, uh, uh, the pj, the para rescue guys in the Air Force, but they all, they all work together, but essentially, depending on what mission you want, you’re gonna choose the right tool. Right. So, uh, green Berets are known for, um, taking a small team, deploying to a, a foreign country somewhere, and then developing living training, uh, alongside a foreign country element to develop their forces to be capable to, to fight whatever the enemy is.
Sevan Matossian (28:54):
And and you did that, your first deployment was in Iraq?
Dale King (28:57):
Yep. Mozul.
Sevan Matossian (29:00):
And, uh, and how long were you there?
Dale King (29:02):
Uh, seven months.
Sevan Matossian (29:04):
And, and, and what was that like?
Dale King (29:06):
Fucking wild. Um, actually the, you had a guy on a couple weeks ago and he had talked about, um, the suicide bomber walking into the chow hall.
Sevan Matossian (29:18):
Yes, yes.
Dale King (29:19):
I was there at that time.
Sevan Matossian (29:21):
Who, who was that?
Dale King (29:22):
Uh, I forget his affiliate name. I reached out to him afterwards. Uh, fuck. Forget
Sevan Matossian (29:28):
His name. Caleb’s on it. Caleb is, Caleb is actually my special intelligence during the day. He helps people with their venereal diseases and at, at, uh, on this job. He,
Dale King (29:38):
You know what, actually that’s a, that’s a decent analogy for like what Caleb’s doing. Uh, finding out more information to present to people, to action targets is essentially what Intel guys do. Was it Amy Schneider? I think it was Amy Schneider. I forget the name of his place. But anyways, I would need to see a.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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