WEBVTT

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how you doing today ? Pretty good , sir .

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Uh Excellent . Good to hear . Uh Let's

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talk a little bit about , I'm going

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over your bio here , let's see . Um Do

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you have a connection here to the

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northwest ? So what is it ? Uh Well I'm

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originally from their uh raised up on

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would be island . Uh And I just I just

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had re stationed up there . I see .

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Okay , so you still have folks out of ?

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Would be . Uh . Say again , sir , do

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you still have family over on with the

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island or nearby ? Uh Yes sir , I have

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my my mother lives up in Whidbey Island .

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Uh Cool . Well we'll talk about the

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family thing here in a minute . Why

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don't you tell me a little bit about

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what you do with supervising the

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communications section there ? Well

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basically I have to make sure that our

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uh our radio systems are up

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and uh we have to make sure I have to

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make sure that uh basically we don't

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lose connections so people can't talk

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while they're on patrol or whatever .

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Right . Right . I understand . So

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what's it been like for you over there

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since you've been stationed over there ?

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Uh It's all right . It's got his

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bad days and majority of its been good

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days uh When you say bad days , tell me

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about what what do you mean exactly ?

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Uh Oh it's just

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uh running

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being bored running out of time not

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being able to do a lot of stuff , you

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know uh watching movies like

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20 times . Uh That sounds like

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being stuck in a hotel somewhere .

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Uh

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Probably a little worse . Uh Tell me a

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little bit about the branch . I mean

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the group your within your unit . And

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um do you have much one on one

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interaction with with the locals there ?

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Uh myself ?

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No . Uh I'm basically with the

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uh with our it's a re trans team just

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relays the system or the radio

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uh when I was before I came back down

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here , I was with them and they we

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interact with a lot of locals there ,

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but since I've been here , uh don't

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interact , interact with a lot of

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locals right now . But uh is it a kind

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of a lot of good guys when you're doing

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that , Does it feel kind of like you uh

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strangely disconnected from something

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that's happening so close to you yet ?

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It's not something you get to witness ?

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Uh No , no , because I

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know there's people out there that are

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uh that are taking care of

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everybody . If I'm not there , somebody

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else's uh tell me about some of

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the more , I don't know how you would

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call it some of the more critical times

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on your watch when you know , you're

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relaying communications . Have you

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heard some pretty intense conversations ?

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Uh No , uh

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when we first got here , we heard a few ,

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but it's just uh

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they talk about the roadside bombs and

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stuff , but that's basically it . And

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what do they say when you hear that ?

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Uh you know they're just they're just

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uh putting a location on it so somebody

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can take care of it , that's basically

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pretty much uh what we on a on a daily

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basis , what we're here ? I see .

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Well , what's the one thing you like

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people to hear back here at home about

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what you do and what you see and how

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things are going over there , that

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maybe we normally wouldn't get to hear .

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Uh ,

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I don't know . It's , I mean , we're

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here to help the people , uh , better

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their country . Uh , I think we're all

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doing an outstanding job .

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You feel like you're getting the upper

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hand there and and your

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job is more than halfway done . Uh ,

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um ,

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uh , I think we are getting upper

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hand . And uh , it's gonna , uh , I

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think myself , we're doing a good thing

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out here helping these people . What

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about just critics of the war ? What

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would you tell them to consider ?

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Uh ,

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open their minds . Look at the look at

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the look on the brighter side of what

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we're doing . We're actually helping

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people we're not here to to uh ,

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basically , we're not the bad guys

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were trying to get the bad guys to help

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people have a better way alive . And

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with that . Let me ask you about this

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latest comment . You know , we're

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coming up out of a term election here

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in a couple days next Tuesday and

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senator john Kerry made a comment a

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couple days ago at a college about how

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he was talking to some college kid and

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said , hey , if you don't study hard

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and get a good education , you could

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wind up in Iraq . It's kind of

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backtrack saying that's not exactly

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what he meant , but that's how I came

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out . And do you have any reaction to

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what he said ? Well ,

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uh , what he

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said is , uh , basically ,

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uh , probably hits home and a lot of

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people because , uh , you can , you can

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get your college education in the army .

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So it's not like if you don't go to

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college , you're going to war . Uh ,

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so it's not , it's not a bad thing to

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join the army . An army has been great

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to me . It's been great to a lot of

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other people . So , Well , what was

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your reaction when you heard about that ?

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Uh , I was , I was amazed . I was

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shocked to hear him say that because

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um , I mean , I didn't , I didn't

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immediately go to college . I went to

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college . I did four years went to

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college and came back in and I've been

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doing more college . So , uh , I mean ,

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uh , it's the way he , the way he said

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it is just if you don't go to college ,

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you're joining the army . So that just

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means that , uh , I guess people that

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aren't smart joined the army . I don't

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know . Uh , and it doesn't sound like

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that's just really quite well with you ,

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I guess . Oh , no , sir .

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Well , tell me about where

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you currently living . I mean , are you

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still your residents dealing with the

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island or ? No ? Uh No , I do live

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at Fort . Well listen , before we

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go here , we do have a shout out to any

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friends or family out there you'd like

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to say hi to . Uh just want to say hi

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to my my whole family . I'm well , I

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love y'all . Hey sean . Thanks for

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talking to us , man . We look forward

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to seeing you back over here soon . All

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right , sir . Thank you sir . Bye .