It’s a rule or something. If you’re Ginger and you name your bar Ginger’s you have to show the world who you are. Either make yourself infinitely available or, the preferred technique, hang a classy picture up behind the bar.

But when your door is always open, Ginger, you gotta be cool with the riffraff, too. If I didn’t love these guys I’d apologize for bringing so much with me in the push to Florida. Anyway, enter our two protagonists: Jack and Chris don’t call him Donnie he hates that. Two gingers crashing the karaoke night at Ginger’s. Irony or meant to be. Yup, both.

But there was an antagonist, too. And his name was Michael, our faithful bartender. And by antagonist I mean that Chris don’t call him Donnie he hates that was at risk of being outdone – a total threat to his manhood. Even peacocks fight kind of deal.

Ginger, thank you for creating the kind of place where judgment for ordering your 10th round of 4 tall boys comes as a question of whether you’d like whiskey shots, too.

And then Michael switched sides of the bar. And even better things happened.

Have I mentioned that Chris don’t call him Donnie he hates that is a combat diver Green Beret before? Well, he is. And that means he’s well versed in the game of escalation until victory is inevitable. But the shot above is a ginger peacock in disbelief at being outdone. By a lot. Not pictured are the scenarios running through his head on how to still win. Singing even worse would not be enough…

And then… “Just lick me, bro” is all anyone heard.

Regret is a powerful motivator and before you knew it Jack went to call his wife. Something about it meant nothing to me but I licked Donnie on the face and I love you.

And when an uncomfortable silence with Mia Wallace or any kind of awkward moment happens, you’re wise to follow Vincent Vega’s advice: One drink and leave. Don’t be rude, but drink your drink quickly, say goodbye, walk out the door, get in your car, and go down the road. And that’s what we did. Live to fight another day kind of thing. And when I later asked Chris don’t call him Donnie he hates that about the night, he said with a lying smile he had no recollection whatsoever of getting licked. And I smiled back and said something about but I bet you remember winning the peacock war. And you’re welcome I found your new favorite place where they still welcome people like you, people like us.

While we were in Atlanta for Scavenger, we chose the Varsity as a case site and we gave the world’s greatest testers aka GRT’s (GORUCK Tough family) a so-called Trek teaser. Sometimes at the Challenge or other Good Livin’ events it’s gear testing. In this case, it was teaching and learning testing. We taught each group a class and then told them to assess the Varsity as a place to have a meeting. General factors to focus on are the infil/exfil routes and security concerns. And as a disclaimer, we are not teaching classified information nor are we training spies. The point is to teach people how to be more aware of their surroundings in everything they do, to complete projects both alone and as part of a team.  And we teach you some of the basics that will help you be more confident in anything you ever submit with your name on it. It’s a direct parallel to Dan‘s idea that in the Challenge we’re building better Americans. In anything you do in life, start with a plan. In this instance, there is a ton of intel you can gather from Google maps, then you supplement this intel with the reality on the ground. The street view thing is a little 1984 to me, but it’s out there and also really cool. In this instance, it’s a good place to start. If you really like this kind of stuff, additional sources where you can find absolutely everything here and then some are Inside Delta Force, Blowing My Cover, and the Spy Museum website.

The infil/exfil thing is as simple as how you come in and how you get out. Don’t make the simple complex and don’t over think it. There are a lot of factors at play at the Varsity because it’s so large with so many different entrances and exits. This is part good, part bad but most importantly, you just want to document it in detail. Your casing starts out as a napkin sketch and when you have more time, you create a more polished sketch. There is a system and a process to do this and communicate it effectively. And if you’re a spy, it’s common sense and you’re an expert at it because it’s a matter of life or death. But it’s only common sense after you’ve been taught and done it over and over. So our goal is to teach common sense.

The intent of your meeting matters. If you’re not supposed to be seen with someone (see the comic above), make sure not to call attention to yourself. And if you smell like onions when it’s all said and done, you might get caught. Best not to smell like onions.

The Varsity is a well known place, visited by a lot of celebrities. Do your homework on any place before you simply show up. If it’s 100 degrees and sunny, bring sunblock kind of deal. At the Varsity, you may find out that a camera crew is coming or a celebrity (President Obama recently stopped in) might be there. That would be a bad time to have a meeting because security will be heightened..

In this case, the camera crew was there because of a football game and before you knew it they found Kling to talk about something besides Selection. So, Mr. Kling, how do you like bobblehead dolls?

Back to security considerations. Cameras, guards, locks, dogs, casuals, and mirrors are all aspects of security to consider. The phrase ‘smoke and mirrors’ doesn’t exist for nothing. Mirrors matter, so use them to your advantage. Or at a minimum make sure no one else is using them against you. Yes, I’m talking about mirrors. They can change your whole vantage point. And when you’re Perseus and you have to chop Medusa’s head off to kill the Kraken to save the beautiful Andromeda, use your shield as a mirror and wait before you strike. It pays to be a winner, and mirrors can help.

If you go to a restaurant, you’re expected to order something and to eat it. It would be weird if you sat down and didn’t order anything. Don’t be weird. This holds true for a date or really anytime. If you show up at a burger joint, don’t order a salad and don’t ask your waiter what kind of sprouts they have. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is: don’t be weird. Your job is to be normal and blend in with normal patterns of life. It seems like common sense, but as all my instructors used to say, common sense is not so common. And yet they taught common sense, and a bunch of what we’re doing is teaching a course on Advanced Common Sense. ACS anyone?

Consider all the angles. There’s a reason why a good cowboy sits in the corner of a room – it’s because his 6 (aka whatever is behind him) is a threat because he can’t watch it. So watch your 6 or have a wall there so nobody can sneak up on you. Sometimes life’s little tricks are just that easy. Back to the Varsity, where I recommend not wearing your Peacemaker on your hip because you’ll probably I mean definitely stick out big time – Google maps isn’t going to tell you that where you see the GORUCK Truck parked (above) is where the Varsity has a drive-in service. Google maps and Internet research and Facebook stalking won’t tell you this stuff and by the way the Internet will only get you so far in life. You gotta get out there for yourself and see what’s up. Google also won’t tell you that this vantage point is a good one. Surveillance is better when you have a better spot, and make sure to note this spot in your napkin sketch.

Rules matter, especially if you’re gonna break them. So find out what the rules are and make sure it’s worth it to make up your own if you think you have to. Usually, you don’t.

And no matter your plan, no matter how thorough you’ve been, no matter how perfectly you’ve cased a place, don’t get married to a plan just because it’s yours. It doesn’t matter how long it took you to develop. The ground truth is what matters. If you’re sitting down and someone across from you is acting suspicious or you get a bad feeling or Obama shows up, go somewhere else. Walk away and trust your gut like Robert de Niro should have done in Heat. The implications in life are similar. You can have a perfect plan, but as the great philosopher Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

We assess what you’ve learned and how you communicate it based on your sketches. The most effective spies are also able to communicate clearly what they are learning on the ground. It’s really not that different than how any company runs. Whatever your job, there is always a bigger plan at work and you are a piece of that. But your boss’s job is to assimilate all the information from the whole landscape, including your work, and prioritize new taskings. It’s a relationship that goes both ways. The more clearly you communicate from the field, the easier you make your boss’s life. And your boss, assuming he or she ‘gets it’, will reward this type of clarity in communication with more responsibility.

We expect your sketches to be good and thorough, something in line with what’s above…

Just kidding, more like the sketch below. Your job is to take what we teach and create a stand alone piece of intel aka your napkin sketch. It happens fast and you have to distill too much information into the most relevant pieces and then communicate them clearly. Aka welcome to pretty much everything you’ll ever do in life.

You present sketch after sketch and we review them — with you — again and again until quality work becomes second nature. In this process your eyes open a little wider to all the angles and your attention to detail grows. You’re also certain to hear us talk about the three rules. To sum it up, ‘Always Look Cool’ is not just about having cool shades on, though cool shades never hurt. It means that if and when hell descends, stay cool like the Wolf in Pulp Fiction if you want to solve The Bonnie Situation. Or any situation for that matter.

They don’t make movies out of the silent successes.  And the work to get there is not especially sexy, but it’s necessary and honorable and it’s done by some of the best folks I’ve ever met. And they’re highly trained and good at what they do and there are a lot of them doing it for us in every corner of the world. Right. Now. And at home always, and especially in the wake of Boston. I was just as enraged as you were, and the word on the street is that home is where the new fight is, and where it will remain. Insert more rage. But Yanks and Sox one team one fight is our job, and to trust that the people who know what they’re doing to protect us are working as hard as possible to do just that. And they are. It’s a job that’s easy for all of us to take for granted (where do my taxes go kind of deal) until Boston. We have several people with this kind of a background working for and with GORUCK. For reasons of circumstance most are not serving in our government anymore. Like me, they wish they still were but life takes other routes sometimes – for better for worse. However, service is addictive, especially when you know you’ve made a difference. Trek and Solutions are their opportunity to give back by teaching what they’ve lived and learned. And they’ve done plenty of serious work but like all the people you really want to hang out with they don’t let that get in the way of a good time.

So this kind of stuff is what we know and it’s only the beginning. We love it and we love to teach aka entertain while you learn something that you take back to your daily life. I’m using the word ‘we’ to talk about our Cadre who have intel backgrounds. I’m supporting them and so are the rest of our Cadre. Our ulterior motive, same with all of GORUCK, is to bridge the gap between a grateful nation and the people who serve it. If you’re considering service in our government, do it. The experience is life-changing. This goes for the military, the CIA, the FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup agencies that afford you the privilege and honor of working for America. And America is full of Americans who are the most rewarding boss and she has a lot of great folks doing all sorts of stuff in her name. Some of them started with how to case a site and a year later found themselves serving in some of the least desirable places in the world. And if GORUCK wouldn’t have happened I would be lucky to work in this field and in the garden spots of the world on our behalf for as many lifetimes as possible. I’m fortunate to still call a bunch of them friends. And the more cool stuff they teach me, the faster I become Java staring up from a basket of chicken tenders in hopes of more.

Yet.

He was just one of the early crazies that showed up looking for some good livin’. He wasn’t looking for a job, he wasn’t looking for anything but a good time. I’ve been asked a bunch how we find our Cadre. It’s kinda like Jules Winfield said in Pulp Fiction: I don’t know. However people meet people. The Special Forces community is super small and very good ol’ boy. If you don’t know someone, you know someone who does. You trade on your reputation at all times, and it’s no big surprise that Dan has a lot to cash in if he ever needs to. As Lou said, what’s not to love?

So Dan had a day job back in 2011, and he still has a day job. A day job I wish I had, and I’m not the jealous type. He’s got a bunch of Green Berets that work for him that call him their Team Daddy and no doubt a bunch of other names when he says hey check it out one too many times. Iron sharpens iron style. But all sharpening aside, I would work for Dan in a heart beat. Where are we going and what are we doing? He’s a better soldier than I’ll ever be. People who know anything know this, and the guys who put their lives in his hands are especially lucky to have him.

Every operator has a switch. With life or death on the line, an operator chooses life. Sometimes, he figures out a way for his brothers to survive at his own expense, like Robbie Miller and Murph did, but those are other stories that belong in the halls of Asgard. It’s a primordial existence to live this way and our best war fighters know exactly what I’m talking about. The thing is that in our training, they weed out the guys who have too short of a fuse, and they’re right to do so. Dan, just like every great operator, would rather diffuse a situation with a smile than a rifle. But sadly the world is full of things and people that don’t respond to smiles.

Green Berets are human, too, and no matter how right you are, it’s still war. And war is not nothing for any human. And sometimes when you’ve got a moment to reflect, or are forced to reflect, you’ll be glad if you find a Red Bull that went missing in your pocket for the last day of fighting.

Back to the Dan I met at his Challenge before I knew he was Dan. As the Challenge has grown, we’ve developed a process to train Cadre. Secret squirrel stuff. But basically if you’ve served in combat with Special Operations that’s a great start. And you better love to smile, drink beer, and sharpen iron. When I saw Dan’s team shirt that clued me into the fact that he was a Green Beret, I casually mentioned that we might be looking for more guys to lead Challenges in the future. Simple enough, right? Well when his Challenge was over, we had another laugh and he no doubt went home to drink more beers and tell his smokin’ hot wife it was an OK time. But before too long we needed Dan. Welcome to the world.

And after a little bit of Cadre training process that Lou worked, the next time I saw him was at the Ascent in September of 2011. The original GRT family reunion, btw. 14,000 feet is a special place to share beers and – whether at our event or not – if you have the means, I highly recommend it.

But Dan staring down 4 sausages with lust in his eyes: priceless. I showed it to him a day or two later (after I let my own smiles set in) and heard a bunch of $&*!’s. Something about how he didn’t want to be Cadre 4 c*ck and yet there he is, staring at ‘em with lust in his eyes. I can still hear him swearing to Lou outside Brian’s house in Colorado about eff this and eff that. I’ve talked about iron sharpening iron before, and this is that at its finest. I hope someone on Dan’s team sees this pic (again – guys, come on), prints it up, and posts it everywhere in the team room.

So Dan is great, got it. But how did he change GORUCK forever? It wasn’t by smiling his way through a wake-up or becoming the Abe Froman of Special Forces. It wasn’t by looking cool while firing a pistol and it wasn’t by just being a war hero.

Let’s back up to the bigger picture and then I’ll bring it back to Dan. I want GORUCK’s people, family and Cadre to impact society by bridging the gap between the military and the civilian worlds. 12 years of a nation at war and there is still too much divide kind of thing. But this is not the part where I say that there are the people who have served and the people who have not and that’s that. I don’t think it’s very productive to view it like that, and I think this simply reinforces a divide when it would be more productive to figure out how a grateful and curious nation can better understand those who serve and have served in the military. Let’s start with the grateful part and say that the American people have come a long ways since Vietnam. And good on us for doing so. Can you imagine what would happen in this day and age if someone spit on a soldier returning home? My blood boils thinking about how that was tolerated. But today absolutely nobody would tolerate it. Nor should they. But just to hammer the point, think of how far we’ve come.

Every soldier knows that Americans are grateful regardless of politics or positions on the wars themselves, and this is vital to morale. Anyway, about the whole impacting society thing. Yeah, we want to do it a million different ways but the core of it is that we’re just normal guys and gals with a history of service. And we put it out there and hope it inspires others to do the same. The Challenge is one way it works because it’s led by a guy who’s been there and done that and it’s a no shit kind of day in the life. And Dan is a perfect guy to lead such a thing. At one of his first classes as Cadre, he was fresh off a deployment to Afghanistan. And here’s a plug for the Green Berets, the Jedi Masters of Special Operations. Please quote me on that until the end of time. These are not the droids you’re looking for as Beaux describes us. Dan had been over there running classic Special Forces missions, which means he was working with local Afghan forces (as opposed to unilaterally) to hunt down high value targets. Afghans become the first guys to kick down the door because Dan told them to kind of deal.

And so then his Dallas Challenge happened. And Savannah and a bunch more after that where Dan introduced mission based scenarios into the Challenge. Team Leader post. Assistant Team Leader post. You have X amount of time to get to point A and you have A, B, and C constraints. That kind of deal. My first Challenges were not like this at all, and the Challenge was my baby. I told the team where exactly to go and what exactly to do when we got there. It worked, but Dan’s version was infinitely smarter, and infinitely better than mine. Like I said, he’s better than I am and I love him for it. If you have one guy to lead you into hell (if that’s your kind of thing), pick Dan. He’ll keep you alive forever. And at his version of the Challenge, which became The Challenge, people learned more. And that’s the crux. Our goal is to teach more and to smile. And, as Dan always says, to build better Americans. Not because we don’t already have it in us as Americans, but because we need to remember to remember who we are from time to time. We are Dan. And Dan’s Challenge brought it to a new level. A spiritual level. And no shit there I was left to say that the guys leading the Challenge are better at it than I am. And when it’s Dan or Lou or Brian or any guy you trust with you life, that’s a good feeling.

This is not a Dan is perfect post. He’s an idiot and I’ll spare you the 400 page slide decks for things like packing lists and event execution. And then he forgot that sunblock was listed clearly on his own slide #336 and when he was at the Selection that became Kling‘s – he forgot it and paid the price. And then he smiled about it and showed us and we laughed at him. I have no doubt he was peeling for weeks later, but I never heard anything about it after the scene of the crime closed down. Aka good form – suffer in silence.

If you put yourself out there, you’re more likely to find the right place at the right time. Dan snapped the above pic on his camera phone during Kling’s long walk – while his sunburn was setting in no doubt – and it’s my new favorite other than a few of  Java crashing into the Atlantic Ocean’s waves, but I’m not a fair judge like that. For whatever reason Dan ends up in the right place at the right time and does great stuff while he’s there. America was built by folks like him. People smile because he does, and I’m grateful to have been, and to be, one of those people.

So Dan and his guys are headed back to Afghanistan. With more than just Hawaiian shirts. Men with families, men who love the guys they go with. They’ll be there with thousands of other men and women in our Armed Forces. Yes it’s 12 years later. And yes I’ve read all the same stuff you have about our nation’s appetite for war declining and all that stuff. But the truth is that Green Berets will always be fighting for each other, and Green Berets will always be the guys who say Send Me. This will happen in wartime and peacetime and Americans have every right to remain grateful. There are a lot of ways to support them and the mission – buy them a beer when they get home or send a care package kind of deal. But if you really want to thank Dan and every Veteran who has ever fought for you, live your life to its fullest each and every day. That’s why we fight, and that’s why I wish I were still fighting with Dan. For you and for us and for America and for the promise I’ll make to you right now that our best days are in front of us.

Special Forces sent me to cities, mountains, jungles, and deserts, by day and night, in every condition imaginable throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I surrounded myself with the best, a standard I grew to expect, and I trusted my teammates, my instincts, and my equipment. We never knew what we might find, so we always came prepared for anything. Through it all, we worked hard and played hard, sometimes in that order, and I learned an honest way of life that will always be my core and the core of GORUCK.

In 2008, war’s unrelenting harshness was behind me, though it remained at the forefront of my mind. With a napkin sketch of GR1 and a vision for GORUCK to become one of the most respected brands in the world, prototyping began. My buddies took early versions of our rucks to combat and to cities the world over, and critiqued every last detail. Green Berets became judge and jury of quality.

But I disliked the notion of sending unproven gear to war. So the GORUCK Challenge – an event patterned after Special Forces training – found its roots in 2010 to serve as the preeminent proving grounds for all GORUCK gear. Adventure-seekers showed up for the unknown, stuffed our rucks with bricks, and began an experience rarely found outside the military.

In that process, adversity spared neither gear nor the people carrying it. And people became the focus. The other Cadre and I taught Challenge takers how to lead, how to solve problems, and how to work better, together. Human bonds formed, limitations disappeared, and classes persevered. The Challenge now serves as the foundation for all GORUCK Events and remains our proving grounds.

We proudly build GORUCK gear in the USA and prove it in the harshest conditions in the world. My Special Forces brothers trust it with their lives, and my duty is to honor that trust with the best and most durable gear that exists. If you said quality was a matter of life or death to me, you would be correct.

Jason McCarthy
10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) 2006-08
Vice President, The Green Beret Foundation
Founder, GORUCK
(And Java‘s Proud Dad)

Scroll down for the PS

The back story is that our origins were always very much my origins in Special Forces. Without that experience, GORUCK would not exist. But Green Berets (aka Army Special Forces) like me are taught to remain quiet professionals, and all I ever wanted to do was to live up to that community. And to not disappoint them. It was a long process for me to open up my life to you, and to GORUCK, and to start to share my story the right way. Our original ‘About’ page had only the picture of the C-17 airplane (above) and some text about Special Forces this and that on it. Like a trillion other sites. My plan was to stay in the shadows. When I realized it was live or die, sink or swim based on my story, I still didn’t fully commit. Java was the segue in 2010, and came to dominate the news blog and much of the site. And you might say he still does. But as the stories and the pics got more personal, including those about my service and the guys I served with, I’ve been humbled by the encouragement of the Special Forces community. And the encouragement of people we’ve met in cities around the world. It’s humbling to start something that people see as a voice for good. Something that people believe in. And as we’ve grown I’m increasingly curious what you’re curious about. Via snail mail, email or the comments section below, I’d love to hear from you. So, the floor is yours…

May 2, 2010: Tough Mudder’s first ever event. To back up a few hundred thousand participants, this is before Tough Mudder was Tough Mudder. At this point they were far from established and they were dead set on overtaking both Warrior Dash and Spartan Race in the marketplace. I was happy to meet them and to work with them, and Will committed to us in a way I’ll always be grateful for. Without Tough Mudder, the Challenge would not have been born. If there was a Class 000 to the Challenge, it’s pictured above. My buddies and I ran the event together, as a team, and had a blast. For us it was kind of like a reunion.

And life is short and a gift so never forget to Carpe Diem. We camped out on the course and raised hell the whole night prior. I’ll offer a big smile and say that those details belong to the guys who were there and the security guards that chased us in golf carts around the mountain. Unsuccessfully, I might add, but I say that with a chuckle not a sneer. Those guys would have had fun at our bonfire just like everyone else did. That was one of the main takeaways of the weekend. People wanted to be on our team. Our drinking team, our rucking team, any team we were a part of, they wanted in. My initial reaction, which I kept to myself, was – yeah, that’s easy. Go earn your Green Beret and we’ll see ya in a few years. Obviously my thinking evolved.

Oh yeah, our gear. It’s great shit and that’s a plug. I spent roughly 2 years of my life on GR1 and it functions really well. Doing Tough Mudder and getting some pics was meant to showcase the fact that we had the ‘toughest rucksack on the planet.’ And we do, but we just don’t say it ourselves like that anymore. We’d prefer to let you say it for us because nobody will ever trust a company like they trust a friend.

Oh yeah, and we had a tent set-up at Tough Mudder, too. We sold next to nothing and everyone told us our stuff cost too much or, even worse, they told us nothing at all. Silence is the most frustrating critic and if you’ve started a business or you’re doing anything and the world is silent, you better change something.

Tough Mudder was great for awareness but never resulted in gear sales for us, and GORUCK needed revenue. We had no events at that time and I was still convinced we were a gear company. Jack and I rejected 90% of our first shipment of rucksacks for quality reasons. Meaning, they were not to our standard. The good news is nobody wanted to buy them anyway, the bad news was that we had a manufacturing nightmare on our hands for the next couple years. It’s a much more refined power struggle now between us and our vendors (based in the USA of course) where we smile and say thank you but this isn’t good enough and it has to get better or we’ll keep rejecting bags. This is a true art to pull off without being completely hated – after all, humans are involved and in no way is building rucks as simple as just finding a contract sew shop and giving them your money. If you do that, you will fail. Manufacturing is a process of difficult and tedious work. Process of course meaning it’s a never ending journey with no destination. Building gear is difficult because it’s done by humans and has to last a lifetime. Events are easier in that we are 100% engaged while they’re going on, but once they’re over, they’re over. There’s no lifetime guarantee for events, even though they might change your life like they did mine. But I’ll let our GORUCK Tough community speak more to that – it’ll mean more that way.

Ah yes my Java. So after Tough Mudder it was kinda like the music stopped because the stage disappeared. This didn’t phase Java one bit, I might add. So we set out to travel the country. Don’t ask me why unless you want some rambling discourse about getting out there and being who you are is where it’s at. You can find that trip on this blog as the ‘Summer 2010‘ posts. The pics aren’t that good and there’s no real story to anything, but there was a lot of adventure. I’ve been passionate about the idea of co-branding since founding GORUCK. Again, it’s my roots in force multiplication. Getting larger companies to work with you before you’re established is not for the faint of heart. But I saw bigger, better brands out there to co-brand with. Such as America and the Unites States Special Forces. So our association with them became the story of GORUCK that we put center stage. Then there are brands that I liked who could help, such as Tough Mudder. The first step in building your own brand is to have a brand worth building. Before anyone knows about you, you’re still your brand whether you know it or not. So you might as well just accept it. You are what you do kind of thing. Every decision I made was meant to strengthen GORUCK and raise awareness for what we had and where we wanted to go. My goal was to become the very best in American manufacturing. And so we were going to prove the gear at venues like Tough Mudder and I was going to tour around the country with Java and a few other folks and co-brand with America and adventure and my story in Special Forces. And it was not just that easy.

Before the trip my grandmother gave me my grandfather’s old money clip. I’m always partial to a story I feel I’m a part of – who isn’t? The world is full of things you can buy, but those things don’t really interest me. My grandfathers, on the other hand, will interest me till the day I die.

I really didn’t know what I was doing when I started GORUCK. I think this was a blessing because I didn’t even know the rules I was supposed to know. All I really knew was that I didn’t want to be that ‘Special Forces guy’ who whored out his past to make a buck. Of all the things I hope to succeed with, not being that guy is right up there with having GORUCK live up to my grandfathers’ expectations for what a company should stand for. Anyway, with ‘Something Big’ in the works – that was the plan at least – Java and I traveled around. City after city, state after state. We met people, we got into adventures. Like Caine in Kung Fu. Except remember, there was no Challenge, there was no ‘GORUCK’ yet. There was a GORUCK Truck full of inventory and no buyers.

Of all the pics from that summer of 2010, the one above of me and jav at the finish of the Chicago Half-Marathon is my favorite. It takes me back to that moment and how it felt, the same way that You Could Be Mine by Guns ‘N Roses is inseparable from that chase scene in Terminator 2. Total classic by the way. GORUCK had no money, the road was a grind, and the present was tough enough to figure out, let alone the future. But this moment was magic. I was just a guy running with my dog. And we had a blast. I’ve heard from older, wiser people than I that I’ll look back with a wistful eye at the days when GORUCK had nothing. This picture is that moment. And it didn’t feel like we had nothing, it felt like we had everything.

But manufacturing was something I could not escape. At this time (still Summer 2010) I was GORUCK’s only employee, if you can call it that. We had one vendor to make our rucks, and I learned a lot about manufacturing from that process. Namely, I learned how it could be easier if a machine could just spit our rucks out. But that machine doesn’t exist. I think sewing and manufacturing are honorable trades, done by people who know how to build things with their hands. The value in GORUCK gear comes because it’s not easy to make, it’s not easy to consistently control quality, and it’s not easy to consistently accept the costs associated with our liberal approach to making the customer happy at every turn. Old fashioned values mean more because fewer companies have them. It it were easy, everyone would do it I guess.

But people gravitate toward what they’re good at in life. And I’m not an operations guy. So I hit the road and turned to promoting the brand. Somehow in that process I learned how to take a decent pic and started dabbling in story telling. So maybe it wasn’t for naught. But the summer adventure cost more money than we had, and it took a tole on everyone involved in any way. If I had it to do over again, I guess I wouldn’t travel to all 48 continuous states with no real purpose. But I’m glad I don’t have it to do over again. We have a beautiful country with great people and it’s a good thing to experience first hand. Just please don’t forget about the good folks out there next time you want to throw your TV out the window because some talking head says we’re in decline.

I had a couple phone calls with Will that summer but Tough Mudder was not a big part of what I was doing and we weren’t a big part of what they were doing. It was more of a let’s see where this goes type deal. But response to GORUCK had been great on his site and it seemed that Tough Mudders wanted more of what we were offering at GORUCK. Will and I put our heads together and came up with a concept whereby I would create training sessions for each Tough Mudder event that we would call Tough Mudder GORUCK Challenges. Will’s word choice was that he wanted me to establish ‘Fight Clubs’ around the country before each Tough Mudder. So I always find it funny when people nowadays compare the GORUCK community to Fight Club since that was literally what it was supposed to be.

The shot above from Class 001 in San Fran was something I was leery of publicizing on Tough Mudder’s site. I did not want the Challenge, even in its infancy, to appear to be just a beat-down and I hated looking like a drill sergeant. The you-suck-do-more-push-ups events have failed since the beginning of time because they have no soul. Anybody can make someone fail, but it takes a little more heart to show people how to succeed. Beat downs work in the military because there is already a higher purpose – serving America and the guy next to you – and you need to instill discipline to work together for that higher purpose. But a civilian version of boot-camp? It’ll never work because it’s not sustainable for the people getting beat down. I got over it, though, and the picture worked and people wanted to see what GORUCK was all about. A lot of people were probably turned off by the utter secrecy of some event they had never heard of that was led by some Green Beret. Am I gonna die type deal? As for the secrecy, I came by it honestly. It was pretty hard to tell people about the Challenge since I didn’t have a true format in my head. The beauty of how it developed is that it was interactive. I saw what worked for people on the spot and gravitated toward that. This approach made it impossible to google and totally unpredictable. But in a magical kind of way.

But back to the whole beat down thing. While it may have looked like a beat down based on how we portrayed it on Tough Mudder’s site, the Challenge itself did have a soul from the very beginning. There was a higher purpose and the higher purpose was your team. And if you lost your beer in the ocean and had a successful recovery operation, life got better for everyone. Of course there was no policy of not drinking during the Challenge back then. It didn’t even occur to me that people would want to drink during this kind of a thing. I mean, it was supposed to be really serious stuff, hard stuff. Right? Yeah, that’s where Beaux and Zach set the standard, spiritually anyway, for what the Challenge would become. Aka welcome to Good Livin’.

Oh yeah, the gear. The shot above of Zach with his GR2 was exactly what I wanted to get out of the Challenge. Pictures of our gear in use to prove the value so people would buy the gear. Home run, right? It makes me smile now to think how small I was thinking. Sure, ultimately our events promote our gear. But even better than that, they promote GORUCK. And GORUCK is about a lot more than just gear. And I was close to understanding that.

People smile and good things happen. Remember that one if you’re in any kind of business. Or if you’re alive in a world with other people.

Oh yeah, the original turned vintage Tough Patch. The flames in the background were from Tough Mudder’s logo. It just kinda made sense to me that we would give people a patch that would never be for sale. After all, that’s exactly what had happened to me when I graduated the Special Forces Qualification Course and earned the Special Forces Tab. On a side note, you can actually buy the SF tab on base for around $1, you just sure as hell can’t wear it unless you’ve earned it. No, this doesn’t mean we’ll be selling the GORUCK Tough patch ever. If there’s one thing that would destroy GORUCK, that’s it. People wear it with pride and so do I.

Behind the scenes, this was a tough time for me in my life, so busy was a blessing. I was out of the military, I was in business school in DC, I was going through a divorce, and I was pounding my knees into the ground to promote GORUCK. Something about how many miles do you have to do to get there? As many as it takes is the only right answer. The people I met kept me going – Kit and Hal and Dan and Harvey and Rod and Tom and so many more were the other, more important (to me) reason the Challenge exists. They told their friends about it, they worked to promote GORUCK and they didn’t ask for anything in return except to be a part of the experience. People will do a lot for something they really believe in.

So the early days were a grind and I wouldn’t change them for anything. And I was expecting a deepening of our relationship with Tough Mudder, but it was not meant to be. Right as I was about to graduate business school in the Spring of 2011, Tough Mudder said good-bye. This cost us a lot awareness but it gave us complete control over the GORUCK brand with a running start behind us. By this time, my misunderstanding of the Challenge had come full circle. And the rest, the really good stuff, has yet to happen. So stay tuned.

We love range time so much that we I mean Dan may sleep on the range just because. But when Lou comes a knockin’ first thing and brings the paparazzi aka me with him, the joke’s on you. I think I heard something about ‘You’re being overrun, soldier.’ But no, we did not shoot over Dan or even flash bang him. Safety first, always. And we didn’t have a flash bang, so that’s why we didn’t do that.

Dan’s Firearms Training essentials in tow: flashlight, Marlboros, a lighter, his Tac Hat with shades in there somewhere, and of course his pistol. With a smile thrown in for good measure to get the day underway.

Brian (above) – one of my best buds. I deployed with him a few times, which means I trusted him with my life. I might add that he’s probably a descendent of both Zeus and Conan the Barbarian in case you couldn’t tell. Anyway, this Firearms Training happened on his property in Colorado – a long ways from the ranges in the Sandbox where our team trained up a battalion of Iraqis. Not to take away from that experience, but it’s a lot more fun doing this here in the good ol’ USA.

Back to you + firearms + training + smiles. We start with the fundamentals, we practice the fundamentals, and we finish with the fundamentals.

Drum-roll please….the fundamentals of firearms training are: Stance, Grip, Sight Picture, Sight Alignment, Breathing, Trigger Squeeze, Follow-Through and Recovery. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, we will make you a better shooter.

Rita (above) showed up with zero firearms experience. That’s not a problem, by the way, and you gotta start somewhere. In her case, though, we had to get her to overcome her morbid fear of guns. They’re lethal and dangerous, that kind of thing. She reminded me of my mom who, for my entire childhood, forbade me from so much as touching firearms. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well for her. Anyway, Rita was a great student – as absolute beginners are – because she had no bad habits and she trusted us. She accepted the fundamentals we taught and applied them quickly and effectively. Once she stopped shaking while holding the pistol that is. We showed her that firearms are logical. Nothing will come out of the end of the barrel unless you pull the trigger. Maintain control of your weapon by controlling where you point the barrel and by keeping your finger off the trigger unless you intend to fire. By the end of the day she was a solid shooter with a healthy respect for firearms. Her fear was gone. If you see her around, ask her how she liked it. I betcha the first thing you get is a huge smile. The lesson is that if you learn how to control a firearm, you will not fear them. Fear is bad, knowledge is good type deal – which is true of so many things in life. The trick is that you have to seek the knowledge out.

If you watch war movies or read the news, you could assume Special Forces guys are ‘special’ because we’re better at all the wazoo stuff. And rightfully so, we are. [Insert a smile from every Green Beret who ever reads this]. But really we’re masters of the fundamentals. Shoot, move, communicate – that kind of stuff. So we teach the fundamentals, you learn the fundamentals, everyone smiles, and while it’s not magic, it always works.

And seriously, don’t forget to smile.

Shooting from a stationary position at a fixed distance from your target is the crawl portion of crawl-walk-run. The walk portion is, you guessed it, walking while engaging your target. Shooting while moving sounds pretty basic, and it is – the same fundamentals apply. But it requires a lot more safety precautions. This is one of the reasons why we have so many Cadre on the range. The ratio is 3-1 Cadre to participant, max. The other reason we have so many Cadre is so we can quickly group participants by ability. If you’re like Rita and you’re new to firearms, we’re going to spend a lot more time going over the basics with you. If you’re an expert, we’re going to show you more dynamic shooting techniques and different – maybe even wazoo – scenarios to make you, well, a better expert.

We’re people people and we like teaching. We want to share what we’ve learned in our Special Operations careers and we want you to take what you learn back to your daily life. As Dan says, we want to build better Americans, better people. GORUCK Cadre teach confidence in everything we do. Whether it’s at our Events or in Firearms Training. The deal with firearms is that they’re serious business. If you own a gun and paid to get some kind of certification, that is not a substitute for real confidence. We teach real confidence. And in my humble opinion, this is a responsibility every gun owner assumes or should assume. All the Cadre you’ll meet are well trained to be as lethal as the situation requires, but the goal in any situation is to use the least amount of force possible. Preferably none. But if you have to use force, you have to be confident to use it safely.

No matter how serious firearms are, you can’t take the fun out of time on the range. Hey, who said ‘Dan Sux’?

Shooting a lot of rounds is mentally exhausting and still the only way to get better. Actually, pulling the trigger is not exhausting at all. But aiming time and time again is. The risk is that fatigue makes you sloppy so as the day goes on the fundamentals become harder to apply. It’s important to take breaks throughout. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em type of deal. And if you’re Java, maybe you’ll even go for a swim.

The Stress Shoot is the culmination of the day’s Firearms Training. It’s the run part of crawl-walk-run and it’s a staple of Special Operations training. You run a short distance and then engage a series of targets. We score you on time and accuracy, which adds a competitive element to it. But even though a surge of adrenaline raises your heart rate (which also happens in real life situations) – the trick is to stay calm and apply the fundamentals. Don’t worry about the outcome. It’s kind of the same thing in life. Do your best, enjoy doing it, and let the chips fall where they may.

The elephant in the room is Sandy Hook. And Chris Kyle. And Virginia Tech. And Columbine. And the list goes on. I wish I could have been there at any of these places to stop tragedy. With force if necessary, but preferably without. But this post is not a glorification of firearms, nor is it a segue into the debate about things like assault rifles or the right to bear arms. I would rather focus on how we can make a positive difference based on what we’ve done and who we are. It’s kind of like that old Spiderman saying that with great power comes great responsibility. So if you own a gun, be responsible. If you know someone who owns a gun, encourage them to do the same. And don’t forget the smiles. Firearms Training is not the same without them.