April 22, 2023 • 40 mins
Jake Bequette III is a former American football defensive end and United States Army infantry officer who served in Iraq.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Sexton Show. On this episode,
our friend Jake Beckett. He is a former NFL player,
former Army ranger, also was a Senate candidate in Arkansas,
and now is the host of the Jake Peckett Beckett Podcast,
which I think you should all check out. Jake, thanks
for making the time.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Good to see him.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, great to be on with you.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So you know, I saw your governor, Governor Sanders Huckerbet
Sanders not long ago, and we talked a little bit
about what's going on in your state, because you would
think that given that Arkansas is pretty darn red, that
it'd be able to join in some of what we're
seeing obviously out of Florida. I'm a little biased about
(00:42):
the Florida thing these days, but you know, Texas is
doing some good things a lot of states, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Of what's happening in Florida, you should be proud of that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Thank you. I am now I'm a new Floridian, so
I'm excited about it. How are you guys doing in Arkansas?
Like like bring people into whether you know we've got
this red state blue state phenomenon playing out in a
way that we've never seen before. Right, people are fleeing
going to red, blue is getting blue, or red is
getting redder. How's Arkansas looking? You get a lot of
folks showing up from Los Angeles who are like, hey,
(01:13):
let's just do the lib thing here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I mean, I truly believe that we are in the
midst of a massive self sorting that's going to happen
within this country. I think COVID only accelerated a trend
that was happening for a couple of decades prior to
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. But I think it's only
going to continue and possibly accelerate as things further unravel
(01:42):
in blue states and blue cities, you know, even within
red states. And you know, I'm glad you brought up
red states because I mean, look, I'm I'm from Arkansas,
born and raised, I live in Arkansas, ran for state
White office here in Arkansas, and unfortunately, you know, we are,
you know, a state that is, you know, like many
other red states, particularly in the South. You know, we're
(02:04):
led by these just establishment rhino squishy hacks. And you know,
that's probably the most charitable way to describe most of them.
You know, these are people who you know, a lot
of the Republicans in these in these deep red southern states,
you know, they were they were a long time Democrats
who just kind of like saw which way the wind
(02:26):
was blowing and changed their party affiliation. Or they're just
people who are you know, they they saw what was
happening in twenty ten, the deep party wave, you know,
and they came in and so we had this big changeover.
And you know, unlike these battleground states that have competitive
primaries cycle in and cycle out, like Pennsylvania, like Arizona,
(02:46):
like Florida. Florida's probably the best example, you know, where
there's constant turnover and there's there's competitive primaries and the
cream rises to the top. You know, we don't have
that in these deep red states. You know, we have
these incumbents, you know, who have been in office for four, five,
six seven terms in the state legislature, in the House,
and the US Senate, and they're you know, it's almost
(03:08):
impossible to win a primary, you know, on the geop
side these days. Trust me, I can tell you all
about that. So without this what without the this purple
kind of competitive primary situation, you know, the the political
establishment just has the opportunity to ossify, to stabilize, and
there's without the outside competitive influences, you know that we
(03:30):
just kind of drift along. And so unfortunately with the
influences of the media, these these giant corporations, big tech,
you know, the culture, you know, the deterioration of of
the church, you know, all these factors. You know, these
these squishy, spineless rhinos, they're not able to combat that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
This is this is crazy? Can we just for a second,
so I don't, I don't. I've actually I've actually never
been to Arkansas, Jake. So maybe we're gonna have to
your Razorbacks. You know, my co host loves the the
big football games. Maybe what to come down and check
out the I'm just impressed with myself that I remember
that they're called the Razorbacks, right, that's the name of it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So because I'll see, for example, I have spent time
out in Utah, great state. A lot of stuff about
Utah that I totally love. The governor's like a communist.
I mean, for a very red state, you get the
governor of Utah is really bad on a whole range
of issues. This is something that I feel like as
we're seeing the sorting happening with people leaving blue, going
(04:28):
to red, red getting redder, and also the role of
state governance post COVID, everyone realizes your state really does matter.
I think there for a while we started to thinking, oh,
it's the federal government, right, you're a state local, it's
kind of your state government matters a whole heck of
a lot. How is it that some of the red
es states give us some of the worst leadership? I mean,
is it just that they have no fear of the
(04:48):
Democrat side, so they get soft, lazy, and they start
to dissemble.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
They know they'll never lose a primary, and that really
is the p problem. You don't have any open seats.
I mean, Arkansas has had the same congressional delegation, the
same four members of the House, the same two US
Senators for ten years now. I mean, it's amazing, like there,
it's been a it's been a whole decade, and we've
had zero turnover in our six member congressional delegation. But
(05:17):
you are right like, like I think, by and large,
you know the problems. I mean, this is a pretty
you know, deeper discussion. We can have a you know,
a podcast series on this. But you know, I think
what's happening at the federal level that's gonna be really
tough to fix, to put it lightly, but where we
actually have the opportunity to exercise power, you know, where
are where the the base, the citizenry still actually believes
(05:40):
what we believe and will grant Republicans the actual ability
to exercise our influence are in these red counties, uh,
in red states. And that's why it's so important for
you know, states like Florida. You know, now it's you
know it it was a purple state. You know, now
due to you know, Governor Desante's influence, it's become a
red state. You know, in some of the other states.
(06:00):
You know, it's it's getting better. You know, Governor DeSantis
has really led the way. You know, it's it's you know,
I I could go on forever about how important it's
been to have him done in Florida, leading the way
and setting the example because for so many years, I
mean for people on the right, we don't even know
what winning looks like. We have no idea what excellence,
(06:24):
what greatness, what victory even looks like. And so we
didn't really have a barometer. So we had Asa Hutchinson
here in Arkansas, who was the governor for eight years.
He was terrible, you know, obviously the governor out in Utah.
You know k Ivy, the governor of Alabama, she's terrible.
Tate Reeves Mississippi. I mean, they're all bad. But we
(06:44):
didn't even know it until Ron DeSantis came in there
and took a fifty to fifty red state and made
it a sixty to forty red state simply because of
the force of his policies and his leadership. Okay, like
he showed that, hey, we can have good thing. Okay,
like we can we can take on these wok corporations
(07:04):
like Disney. You know, we can remove Soros DA's when
they get out of line. We can take over higher education.
You know, we can actually move the needle and show
the rest of the country. And so, like, just as
any in business and sports and whatever, competition is a
good thing. And so Governor DeSantis has moved every other
red state governor to the right on the issues simply
(07:26):
because they've been humiliated by you know, the national news
and people in these red states like Arkansas looking like Hey,
like Asa Hutchinson, why aren't you doing what ron de
Santus is doing in Florida? And so obviously, like you know,
people's discussed with Asa Hutchinson. You know, he was the
guy who went on Tucker Carlson and was saying that,
you know, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley would have
(07:49):
agreed with, you know, transgender mutilation surgeries for children. Asa
Hudchson actually vetoed a bill in Arkansas that would have
made that illegal, and so and so we were fed
up with him, and we moved on to someone who's
definitely better than him, and Governor Sarah Sanders, and she's
implementing some good policies. But it really it started with
Governor Rondecantis in Florida. He has shown the way and
(08:12):
I can't emphasize enough how important that has been to
show the people on the right in this country that
winning is possible.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I think technically we have to say he is presidential
candidate Asa Hutchins, just to be clear. Just to be clear,
I think if he breaks one percent of the national vote,
you know, Jake, I'll next time that goes down.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I sincerely hope that he stays in the race through
the Arkansas Super Tuesday primary in twenty twenty four. I'm
genuinely curious to see what he will get in his
own home state. There's no way he lasts that long.
He'll probably drop out after Iowa forgetting you know, a
fraction of one percent. But I mean in Arkansas, he
wouldn't even get five percent of the vote in his
(08:57):
own home state, that's how reviled he is.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I want to come back and talk to you a
bit about, first of all, your story as it pertains
to your service in the Army Rangers, and then talk
a bit about Ukraine and some of what we've been
hearing recently about us role there, maybe a little more
substantial than is officially talked about. I mean I always
assume that the role is I've thought that all along,
(09:20):
but you know, secret squirrel stuff. We all know what
goes on. But we'll come back here in just a second,
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first off, tell everybody what years, what years were you
in I just wanted to talk a little bit about
(10:47):
your military service where we talk about the national security
side of things right now. When did you first get
into the Army?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So I joined the Army in the summer of twenty seventeen.
You know, I played four years of professional football for
the New England Patriots. You know, won a Super Bowl
with those guys single handedly. You know, it wouldn't Brady,
wouldn't Belichick. It was all me. You know. After I
got done solidifying that dynasty, I went to law school.
(11:13):
You know, my my my intention wasn't to practice law.
You know, I was really hurt after I left the NFL,
so I went to law school to get healthy. And
when I was in d c H in law school,
I just, I really, you know, my ultimate plan was
was a serve in the military. And I didn't want
to be a jag and I was getting close to
the age limit, so you know, I just I decided
it was the best thing to do to to drop
(11:33):
out of law school and join the Army. And that's
what I did. I went through basic training Officer Canada school.
You know, went through the UH Infantry Officers course. I
went through ranger school.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I have questions. I have questions. Hold on, Yeah, like,
was there a point at which you were you were
in your let's say your first or second week of
basic training or something, and you're a little bit you
did you ever have the thought You're like, maybe, I don't
know about this decision. I'm just wondering. That's a big
move to drop out of law school right to serve.
(12:06):
I mean, I think it's very honorable decision, it's great.
But did you did you know every day you were
going through it that this is what was for you?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, I did. I mean, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna say it wasn't challenging, you know, but I
really I fully committed to making that decision. But yeah,
I mean there were some moments, you know, you're you know,
I went from having a really great apartment in downtown
Boston playing for the Patriots, you know, part of a
Super Bowl championship team, you know, to go into a
great apartment in Washington, d C. You know, go into Georgetown,
(12:38):
a great law school, to you know, being in a
in a sleeping bay of you know, sixty five eighteen
to twenty four year old Basic trainees. You know, just
kind of looking around at midnight, you know, man, Like, your.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Social options definitely decreased. Your service to the country increased dramatically, congratulations,
But your social options from being a NFL player in
Boston to being in Basic training, you know, not as
many cheerleads.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
But yeah, no, exactly, you know, but I was. I
was fully committed to making that sacrifice. And you know,
at the end of the day, I realized that it
wasn't gonna be it was gonna be a temporary, you know,
temporarily a difficult situation to go through Basic and go
through o CS and Ranger school. But you know, I
never lost sight of that goal, which was to get
my ranger tab and you know lead a rifle platoon,
(13:28):
which I was very blessed to have the ability to do.
And you know.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I was a herd. What's the hardest part of Ranger
school for you? For what did you find the most
challenging part of it?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It was the starvation. I mean, like truly, like there's
I lost about forty pounds in Ranger school. I went
in weighed about two hundred and forty pounds, got out
weighing two hundred. I can show you some photos another time.
I mean I was like a stick figure coming out
of there. My mom cried when you saw me at
Ranger School graduation. I was so thin. But you know,
coming from a football background, you know, I like to eat,
(13:59):
so that was that was a huge challenge. But sleep
deprivation and food deprivation is a huge part of the school.
You know, you get pushed to your mental, physical, emotional,
spiritual limits, you know, but that's that's how you forage
great leaders, you know, over that sixty two day course,
and you know, I was able to finish it in
the in the shortest amount of time, thank goodness, and
(14:19):
and get out of there and get to my platoon.
So yeah, I would say that the sleep depth, you know,
forty five minutes of sleep per night for like ten
straight nights, is not not ideal when it comes to
you know, rest, recuperation and being in a prime mental state.
But you know, that's just part of the deal.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Where do you end up deploying Iraq?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
So my my Brigade Combat Team with one hundred and
first Airborne we were stationed in uh northern Iraq, the
Kurdistan region.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Oh I ah, what were you're like in Suli or something?
I know, I know that area of the world pretty well.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We were we were between Mosul and our Biel.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Oh Moses, that place back in the day, my time
in Moses. And that was a spicy location, let me
tell you. But that was uh what when were you there?
If you don't mind about a deck about it. I
mean and I was in the region, I will say
about a decade about a decade before you I mean
basically yea.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Before before twenty fifteen, because obviously that was the capital
of the Califade. You know when when Isis had their
had their brief rreaker.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, no, no, yeah, well I was there again in
the vicinity and that too specific. I was there on
the vicinity, uh you know, doing my uh analyst uh
you know, dressed as like a guy on a camping
trip thing. Right after or pretty close to what happened
was like they kicked all the bad guys, I mean
(15:43):
not all of them, but they they cleared out Flujah
Ramadi and that had been this is like oh six
oh seven period that you know, those had been and
bar province was just the worst, right, the heaviest fighting.
The Marines had to go in their house to house
to all that stuff. But a lot of them, the
suicide bomber rat lines and the bad stuff switched up
north to Mosul coming in. So that was yep. So
(16:05):
I remember I remember going spending some time with some
of the SF teams out there and trying to see
what could be done to stock because these guys were
going into marketplaces with you know, suicide vest are actually
car bombs all the time, just you know, blow up
thirty fifty eighty people. Whatever it was. It was really
really awful stuff. But so when you were there, it's
fascinating actually because when I was there it was horrible,
and then when you were there it was horrible. It
(16:27):
was like the main spots. So what were you doing?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So it was a really interesting mission set. You know,
it was a combination of patrols. You know, we were
doing some diplomatic stuff, you know, meeting with the uh
you know, provincial governor you know this Ninila province, so
the provincial governor of the Iraqi. Yeah, the their version
of a core level commander was stationed with us, you know,
so we were coordinating air strikes. You know, we we
(16:53):
had some guys going out on target. So, I mean,
it was a it was a really interesting kind of
all encompassing mission set. It was great for for a
young lieutenant to get out there and kind of see
everything that was going down. And this was this was
a couple of years after you know, we had cleaned
out Isis, you know, but there were obviously still I mean,
as you know Mosl and Rbil, Curtis Dan. It's kind
(17:15):
of a confluence of a lot of different ethnicities. You know,
it was an old trading route historically, so there was
a there's a you know, a lot of a Sunni
Shia conflict happening in that part of the you know,
that part of the Middle East. And you know, obviously
in in the late twenty tens, that was when Iran
first really started to uh flex on that area. You know,
(17:37):
the Isis was was Sunni and so once Isis got
cleaned out, the Shia you know, came in and decided
they were in charge. Obviously, the these Shia backed or
these I Ran backed Chia militia groups, the SMGs, you know,
we're all over the place. It was a really fascinating
and and pretty intense mission set out there. But you know,
like I said, it was a it was a good experience.
(17:57):
It was a good deployment. I deployed with some great people, uh,
and not just army. You know, we had some you know,
we had some some Marsat guys, Marine raiders, we had
some Air Force j tax with us. You know, we
had some some guys from your with with you with
your training who were with us. So it was a
it was a really outstanding deployment.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So what I wanted to ask you, I wanted to
get that background. It's so interesting too, by the way.
I mean, I everyone that I talked to who deployed
your rocker Afghanistan before you, it was it's always roughly
my contemporaries, you know, other few years before, a few
years after being in that part of the world. But
you know, now, of course we have people that were
dealing with like you, dealing with the isis uh situation
(18:43):
uh up in up in a rock specifically obviously Afghanistan
kind of continued much much longer. If I if I
got to ask you something, I'd be curious if someone
told you that you could go and advise the Kurds
just theoretically, if this kind of thing we're happening, I
don't know, But if I told you that you could
(19:04):
go and advise the Kurds on the ground, I'm sorry
the Ukrainians. You already advise the Kurds, the Ukrainians on
the ground to help them against the Russians. I really
mean this honestly, Like, would you want any part of
that fight? Would you say, you know what, I want
to go and possibly, you know, take the risks of
(19:26):
we all know what can happen over there. How would
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I would advise the Ukrainians to make peace as quickly
as possible on the best possible terms they could get,
because I think that's that is the best possible outcome
for them right now. And that's that's not the narrative
that you get from the mainstream media. You know, obviously
they you know a lot of these people, these warhawks
and neocons and and you know, unfortunately lids now you know,
(19:51):
they're they're willing to fight to the last drop of
blood of someone else, you know, like namely the Ukrainian people.
You know in the alley, guys who are who are
helping them in that fight. But you know, I just
think that you know, I'm I'm not willing to go
over there or send someone that I love to go
fight for the territorial sovereignty of the frontiers of Eastern Europe,
(20:14):
especially when there's ethnic conflict there that you know, most people,
you know don't even have the beginnings of an understanding of.
And you know, especially when here in the United States
we don't have territorial sovereignty over our own country. You know,
let's just let's just be very blunt. I mean, we
we don't have a southern border. You know, I talk
to people who are with border patrol. There's actually kind
(20:35):
of a developing story that's you know, people who are
plugged in or following. Actually, our northern border is actually
becoming more and more of an issue. You know, these
these you know, these.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
In the numbers are a lot smaller, but the percentage
increase is substantial.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Absolutely, and and you know it makes sense because there's
not as much media attention on our northern border now,
and so you know, in the in the age of
globalization and transportation, people can get.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I mean I think that if if you can
get to Mexico your chance. Now, I've spent a fair
amount of time at the border and a bunch of
different locations right along sup border patrol, spending time with
those guys and gals. You know, I would I would
bet that. I mean, if you were telling me, never
mind getting getting myself into the country illegally, if I
(21:21):
chose to do that across the southern border, I'd give
ten to one odds that I'm able to get into
the country.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Now that's not including the idea of like surrendering, right,
I mean, because that's what a lot of the family
units and others have done. But if you're just saying
straight shot into America, I think ten to one I
can because I know the cartel games, I know.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
What they do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So if you just replicate that, you'll be able to
get in pretty easily. Put them at the northern border,
you know, I feel like that's wide open. That's got
to be super easy to get across. We have almost
no protection up there whatsoever. So if people figure out, well,
if you can, you know, if you can fly to camp,
especially for the people that aren't coming via foot and train,
you know, from Central America, specifically in Northern Triangle countries.
(22:01):
People forget they're coming from Piland, They're coming from West Africa,
they're coming from China, from pakist all over the world right,
the illegal traffic across the border, so that means planes.
So at some point it is interesting to think about.
You know, I guess it depends on who you know,
who's allowed into Canada, but it would be easier to
come across from.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You asked me a question, I mean, what's what's a
fight that I believe in? Securing America's borders as a
fight that I believe in. I mean, I made the
point on social media a couple of months ago. It's
it's always struck me as strange that, you know, you
have these these these warhawks and neocons and everyone, you know,
beating the war drums, you know, supporting literally every possible
(22:43):
foreign intervention, you know. I mean, like they'll back any
proposed military action if it's done by NATO or the
United States.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Or the UN.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
But you never hear them mention like destroying the Mexican
drug cartels or you know, utilizing America's armed forces to
supplement border patrol on the southern or northern border, and
like look, I'm I'm not someone who trusts the Pentagon,
the DD or our military establishment to do the right
thing at all times. But it's just curious to me
they've never never even floated that. You never hear Lindsey Graham,
(23:16):
you know, talking about like, you know, spinning up America's
military to destroy the cartels. He may have jumped on
that bandwagon after people pointed that out, but I just
think that's strange. That's a fight that I believe in.
I mean, you want to solve America's recruiting crisis, and
when it comes to military personnel, you know, like actually
have a you know, a a dedicated campaign. I mean
like like Trump kind of dipped his toe in on
(23:37):
possibly using the military. I mean one of the one
of our sister brigades with one hundred and first Airborne
was you know quote deployed to Arizona and on the
southern border. They didn't really do anything. They didn't have
the authority to really interdict, you know, the illegals coming
across the border. But I mean I would love I mean,
like some of our best military, uh you know leaders.
I believe Douglas MacArthur, when he was a young Luke
(24:00):
Tennant or captain. He was involved in the you know,
the Poncho Villa cross border raids. And I mean like like,
using the military to secure our southern border has long
been well within the traditions of American foreign policy. So
I mean, that's a fight that I believe in.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Let's come back to that in a second. So when
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(25:20):
Get those Giza Dream Sheets and whatever else you like,
and make sure you use promo code buck. Okay, so
you were you were up there in northern Iraq. You
saw the situation with ISIS, which was a there was
a little more conventional actually military fight than what I
had seen, which was a clearly a counterinsurgency.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It was much more find the bad guys, kicking the
doors and arrest them if possible. Often it wasn't possible, cartels,
fighting the cartels with the military, and obviously the intelligence
force intelligence community would be a big part of this too,
because it would be kind of like dealing with al Qaeda,
you know, looking for individuals and networks and things like that.
(26:01):
Not you know, brigade versus brigade combat maneuvers. What do
you think of that idea? Did we send the military
after the cartels in Mexico?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Well, I think it's a it's an all the above strategy.
I mean, you leverage intelligence, you leverage your power, and
obviously you leverage you know, conventional and special ground forces.
You know. But I'm just I'm tired of people who,
you know, you mentioned things like this and they just
kind of scoff like it's not possible. I mean, you know,
look at what Naive Bucal is doing in El Salvador.
(26:31):
I mean, this is a guy who I mean, I'm
as high on this guy as a world leader as
I am on anyone. I mean, he's he's one of
these guys who's just who's showing He's showing the world
what's possible with genuine leadership. I mean El Salvador, you know,
had the the world's highest murder rate not too long ago,
and you know, it would it's laughable, it would have
(26:51):
been laughable to assume that, you know, someone could come
in there and neutralize these gangs that have been terrorizing
and ruining the country for generation. But he came in
and did that and it wasn't easy. And yeah, I
mean that he was a mixture of you know, hard
and soft power. But it is possible, and you know,
we just you know, I use bucal At as an example,
(27:12):
you know, I use Governor Ron DeSantis as an example.
I mean, just people on the right in America, we
don't even know what excellence looks like. We don't even
we don't have any conception about what is or is
not great. And you know, we have these beacons. We
have people who are showing us, hey, if we just
have people, if we have leaders on our side who
have the will, who have the force of will to
(27:33):
actually do this, who were going to pin their ears
back and just get it done, I mean like, yeah,
well you know, like you kind of you know, it's
it's as Coach Belichick would say, it's it's part of
the process. You know, it's it's it's something that you know,
you you know, you adjust and things go wrong, you
fix them, and things you know, you you get it
done over time. But it starts with just having that
iron will that you're not going to let anyone tell
(27:55):
you that it can't be done. You have an in
state in mind, and you know you're not gonna know
just one more thing about like about you know, this,
this this idea of leadership I'm sick of. You know,
for so many years people on the right were captive
to people like Frank Luntz and you know, people who
like they think that leaders are supposed to follow public opinion.
(28:17):
You know, you know, one of the greatest things about
Governor DeSantis is he's very clear that he doesn't govern
by following public opinion. He has the Steve Jobs model
of leadership in mind. And you know, Steve Jobs is famous.
I think he borrowed this saying from Henry Ford. You
know I'm paraphrasing, but essentially he said, you know, people
don't know what they want. You have to show them
what they want and then they'll follow you. You know,
(28:38):
like like, no one could have envisioned the iPhone. They
wouldn't have responded to a Frank Lunz poll and said
I want an iPhone. No, Steve Jobs showed them the iPhone,
and then of course now everyone has an iPhone. Same
thing with the vehicle, and the same thing with leaders
like Naive Bukele and Ron DeSantis. That's what leadership is
it's not following, you know, Frank Lunz's polls. It's actually
you know, like like having the will to solve a
(29:01):
problem and showing the people that it is possible. So
that's I mean, I want to see more people like
that rise in American politics or else. You know, we're
in We're in deep trouble.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It's fascinating that Bucule and El Salvador used prison labor
prisoners MS thirteen prisoners to destroy I'm sure you saw
this the graves of MS thirteen gang members because they
were being used as gathering sites in the cemeteries. So
they just if your gravestone said anything about MS thirteen,
(29:31):
they just turned into rubble. Not allowed to have public
displays of anything having to do with Mars Salvatrucia. He's
hardcore about it, man. He treats it like he says this.
I've heard him in an interview saying that he views
the threat of MS thirteen the way that he thinks
people in Germany should treat Nazism, which is that it
is a threat to the live, safety of lives and
(29:55):
safety of the people, and also a threat to the
very integrity of the state. Itself, and for a small
country in Central America to take that approach and obviously
have some results early on, I think is really interesting.
I've got a couple of NFL questions for you, and
we come back in a second here, So hold on
for a minute. Everybody, you will see if you're watching this,
if you're not watching, if you're only subscribing on the podcast,
(30:15):
which most of you listen to the podcast, But there's
also YouTube. Go to YouTube dot com slash box Sex
and we've got video there. You can see that my
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mister Beckett, First all, you mentioned Bill Belichick. I know
a million people have asked you, but I haven't.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
What's you like? Well, he's a genius. He's one of
the greatest leaders I've ever been around in the civilian
world or the military. I did my last podcast actually
on the Patriots Dynasty in what we used to call
the Patriot Way, and you know, Coach Belichick had a
very simple set of rules for the team. You know,
(32:02):
do your job, work hard, be intentive put the team first.
You know, those those were the four rules you know
that you had to abide by when you you know,
when you when you step into the Patriots facility, you know,
when you became a New England Patriot. And you know
he was he was able to push us very hard.
I mean, there were so many stories of other veterans
coming in from different teams, either by trades or free
(32:22):
agency or whatever, and after a week or so, you know,
they would just quit the team. I mean, like big
name guys like you know, Reggie Wayne, Robert Gallery, Kellen Winslow.
I mean, like you know, brand name players. And I'm
not denigrating these guys, but you know they would come
in and after seven, seven or ten days of Patriots
training camp, they would go to Bill and just say, hey, coach,
(32:43):
you know this isn't for me. I'm gonna retire, and
like that's you know, other other players who came in
could not believe how hard you worked, how hard Bill
coached the players. You know, but we were all on
the same page, you know, we all marched and the
beat of the same drum. You know, Tom Brady was
a huge, huge reason for that. You know, I like
to tell the story of my first ever Patriots team meeting.
(33:06):
You know, I'm a brand new rookie coming in there
in May. It was like our first first spring mini
camp team meeting that the team had just lost the
Super Bowl to the Giants the year before that. I
got there and you know, he was just kind of
the first team meeting, kind of a nothing meeting. Bill's
just kind of laying out his expectations for Mini camp
and Tom Brady comes in and he's sitting front row center.
(33:26):
You know, he didn't have to do that, but he
sat front row center every single day, and in this
first ever team meeting, I'm sitting there, Brady's just he's
got his notepad, He's sitting up and he's just scribbling
notes furiously. He's trying to soak in every bit of
knowledge that Bill was sharing with us. And he had
probably heard the same meeting ten or fifteen times, the
same spiel, but he was trying to glean that extra
(33:47):
bit of knowledge. But I think what he was really
doing he was setting the example for all the new guys.
He was he was setting the tone for everyone else
who was sitting right behind him in that team meeting. Room,
you know, in the rows above him, and you could
see Tom Brady just just so attentive in taking notes
and engage intellectually and mentally engaged. And you know that
(34:09):
was that was the kind of leadership we had from
the coaching staff, from the Marquee players, guys like like
Tom and Gronk and Vince will Fork and Matthew Slater
and so many others. You know, it was just an
absolute machine. And that I tell stories like that to
really explain what is the Patriot Way because it's not
just for football, you know, it's for any Any leader
can learn from the Patriot Way. You know, whether you're
(34:31):
in politics, or in business or in media, whatever it is.
You know, if you if you follow those rules and
you and you hold people accountable, do your job, be attentive,
work hard, put the team first, you're going to have success.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
What was your favorite part of being an NFL What
were you a linebacker? By the way, is that right?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I was a defensive end, tight end, special teams player,
I was. I was a utility guy. Okay, I kind
of did everything.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
What was your favorite part of playing in the NFL
and what was the part that wasn't so great.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, the best part was being around people who
were the greatest at what they do. And you know
I was I was very you know, humbled to be
drafted by them in the third round and just I
didn't take it for granted to be around some of
the great the greatest coach of all time, the greatest
quarterback of all time, some of the greatest players in
the league. You know, I think Gronk was the best
tight end of all time. You know, I was in
(35:26):
the same tight end meeting room as him for two years.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
He seems like a fun guy, by the way, Is
he a fun guy? Is that? Is that real?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Gronk is exactly who you imagined him to be. I'll
tell you a Gronk story. So Gronk, you know, every
member of the Patriots players and coaches and staff, we
had these key fobs that gave us twenty four to
seven access to the facility, you know, at any time,
and like during the off season especially, guys come up
there at night or early in the morning to get
a work out in, getting the hot tub, col tub, whatever.
(35:53):
And you know Gronk, you know, during the off season,
he would, you know, he'd go out in Boston or
Providence or whatever. You have a great time, stay out
till two or three in the morning. And he would
have his buddies drop him off at the Patriots facility
at like three thirty in the morning. So he would
fob in and go straight to the training room and
he would find one of the training tables and just
(36:15):
like pass out, just stretch out and go to sleep.
And so when the trainers would come in in the morning,
they would see Gronk like still in his like you know,
like night life clothes, just like sleeping there. They would
roll up his sleeve at stick an IV in his
arm and just kind of revive him and he would
get up after a couple hours and just go be
like the dominant force that he was. It was about
(36:37):
that time that it was about that time that I
realized that, you know, some people are more talented than others,
that he had a pretty high ceiling like I was,
you know, I was getting plenty of sleep, do it
everything right, and like still, this guy was the greatest
tight end that I had ever seen, you know, but
he was. He was a great player, a great teammate,
you know, despite like having a good time on the weekends.
(36:58):
He worked his butt off when he was you know,
when it was time to do that, and he was
just a joy to be around. I mean, just a
hell of a great guy.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Was there anything, though? I mean just physical punishment to
your body or like, what was the what was the thing?
If you had to point to one thing. I mean,
you're playing in the NFL, right. I feel like when
people get to that level of success and something that's
as heralded as that, there's a maybe for a lot
of folks, a public perception of like it just must
all be amazing. Nothing is all amazing, right, I mean
we all know that. So what was either the challenge
(37:28):
or the thing you wish you could change, you know,
something that you're just like, ah, that part of it's
maybe it was a surprise. Maybe it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. I mean
it was. I mean, I told you those stories of
some of the greatest NFL players of all time to
strip quitting because of how tough it was. And yeah,
there's a lot of physical punishment that goes into playing
at that level. And you know, Bill's old school. He
came from the Bill Parcells school of coaching, and I
mean that was like full contact practices as much as possible,
(37:58):
you know, all kinds of hitting. We probably did more
hitting in New England that we did, you know in
my college days at the University of Arkansas. So you know,
it was a it was a huge you know, it
was very very tough on your body, you know, very
tough mentally to to to survive and thrive and that
and that tough of an environment. But you know, it
was a great preparation for what I was, you know,
(38:19):
gonna do in the military and Rager school, and you know,
at the end of the day, you know, God had
a plan. I would have loved to have played for
a bit longer in the league, but you know, I
wouldn't change it, Like going back, I would not change
a single.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Thing institutionally getting a Patriots cheerleader frowned upon or encouraged
for players.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
So, uh, they're actually I'm pretty sure it was actually
it was against their rules.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
For from other another situation I keep going, which I
think obviously everybody.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, I mean there there is you know, there is
kind of a double standard there. It's from from what
I remember, it is true that I mean, there were
no restrictions on us. I mean, we coul date whoever wanted,
but for the Patriots cheerleaders, they would get fired if they,
you know, we were caught with one of the players.
I'm pretty sure Gronk's longtime girlfriend is a former Patriots cheerleader,
(39:12):
and like that's that's what happened, is you know, they
got outed in their relationship and and she got canned
or maybe maybe like they went public after she was
done or something. But yeah, I'm pretty sure it's against
it's against their the cheerleader rules, you know, and that's you.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Know, hey that I think that's kind of ridiculous, the
cheerleader code of ethics.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I mean, come on, yeah, I mean I think that's
that's kind of absurd. Like, I mean American, Like there's
an old Sports Illustrated cover of when when Miami won
one of their national championships, you know, the you there's
this famous you know photo of you know, one of
the players on the field aft of the game, you know,
kissing the cheerleader. I mean, like people love that. Like
what's wrong with that? I Mean, I I really don't see, uh,
(39:54):
you know, any problem. Maybe it's just me. I don't know,
maybe there's there's some other rationale that I'm not seeing,
but I I thought that was kind of a dumb policy.
And you know, I'm glad that Grant got his girl.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
There we go. Yeah, I think I think all the
men of America are hitting your second and some of
the ladies. I'm sure tour segus. That's absurd, but anyway,
not an important topic, but I was curious. Anyway, Jake,
you're doing great work. Where should people go to listen
to your podcast?
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, we're on all platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, the
Jake Beckett Show podcast like subscribe, leave a good review.
You know, it's been great. We're seven or eight episodes
in right now, and it's been a great project thus far.
So give us a give us a listen there, and
you can find me on social media on Twitter at
(40:39):
Jake Beckett ninety one. So yeah, that's that's where you
can find me.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Jake, thank you for your service and thank you for
your time.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Man.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Buck
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Sexton Show. On this episode,
our friend Jake Beckett. He is a former NFL player,
former Army ranger, also was a Senate candidate in Arkansas,
and now is the host of the Jake Peckett Beckett Podcast,
which I think you should all check out. Jake, thanks
for making the time.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Man.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Good to see him.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, great to be on with you.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
So you know, I saw your governor, Governor Sanders Huckerbet
Sanders not long ago, and we talked a little bit
about what's going on in your state, because you would
think that given that Arkansas is pretty darn red, that
it'd be able to join in some of what we're
seeing obviously out of Florida. I'm a little biased about
(00:42):
the Florida thing these days, but you know, Texas is
doing some good things a lot of states, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Of what's happening in Florida, you should be proud of that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Thank you. I am now I'm a new Floridian, so
I'm excited about it. How are you guys doing in Arkansas?
Like like bring people into whether you know we've got
this red state blue state phenomenon playing out in a
way that we've never seen before. Right, people are fleeing
going to red, blue is getting blue, or red is
getting redder. How's Arkansas looking? You get a lot of
folks showing up from Los Angeles who are like, hey,
(01:13):
let's just do the lib thing here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I mean, I truly believe that we are in the
midst of a massive self sorting that's going to happen
within this country. I think COVID only accelerated a trend
that was happening for a couple of decades prior to
twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. But I think it's only
going to continue and possibly accelerate as things further unravel
(01:42):
in blue states and blue cities, you know, even within
red states. And you know, I'm glad you brought up
red states because I mean, look, I'm I'm from Arkansas,
born and raised, I live in Arkansas, ran for state
White office here in Arkansas, and unfortunately, you know, we are,
you know, a state that is, you know, like many
other red states, particularly in the South. You know, we're
(02:04):
led by these just establishment rhino squishy hacks. And you know,
that's probably the most charitable way to describe most of them.
You know, these are people who you know, a lot
of the Republicans in these in these deep red southern states,
you know, they were they were a long time Democrats
who just kind of like saw which way the wind
(02:26):
was blowing and changed their party affiliation. Or they're just
people who are you know, they they saw what was
happening in twenty ten, the deep party wave, you know,
and they came in and so we had this big changeover.
And you know, unlike these battleground states that have competitive
primaries cycle in and cycle out, like Pennsylvania, like Arizona,
(02:46):
like Florida. Florida's probably the best example, you know, where
there's constant turnover and there's there's competitive primaries and the
cream rises to the top. You know, we don't have
that in these deep red states. You know, we have
these incumbents, you know, who have been in office for four, five,
six seven terms in the state legislature, in the House,
and the US Senate, and they're you know, it's almost
(03:08):
impossible to win a primary, you know, on the geop
side these days. Trust me, I can tell you all
about that. So without this what without the this purple
kind of competitive primary situation, you know, the the political
establishment just has the opportunity to ossify, to stabilize, and
there's without the outside competitive influences, you know that we
(03:30):
just kind of drift along. And so unfortunately with the
influences of the media, these these giant corporations, big tech,
you know, the culture, you know, the deterioration of of
the church, you know, all these factors. You know, these
these squishy, spineless rhinos, they're not able to combat that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
This is this is crazy? Can we just for a second,
so I don't, I don't. I've actually I've actually never
been to Arkansas, Jake. So maybe we're gonna have to
your Razorbacks. You know, my co host loves the the
big football games. Maybe what to come down and check
out the I'm just impressed with myself that I remember
that they're called the Razorbacks, right, that's the name of it.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So because I'll see, for example, I have spent time
out in Utah, great state. A lot of stuff about
Utah that I totally love. The governor's like a communist.
I mean, for a very red state, you get the
governor of Utah is really bad on a whole range
of issues. This is something that I feel like as
we're seeing the sorting happening with people leaving blue, going
(04:28):
to red, red getting redder, and also the role of
state governance post COVID, everyone realizes your state really does matter.
I think there for a while we started to thinking, oh,
it's the federal government, right, you're a state local, it's
kind of your state government matters a whole heck of
a lot. How is it that some of the red
es states give us some of the worst leadership? I mean,
is it just that they have no fear of the
(04:48):
Democrat side, so they get soft, lazy, and they start
to dissemble.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
They know they'll never lose a primary, and that really
is the p problem. You don't have any open seats.
I mean, Arkansas has had the same congressional delegation, the
same four members of the House, the same two US
Senators for ten years now. I mean, it's amazing, like there,
it's been a it's been a whole decade, and we've
had zero turnover in our six member congressional delegation. But
(05:17):
you are right like, like I think, by and large,
you know the problems. I mean, this is a pretty
you know, deeper discussion. We can have a you know,
a podcast series on this. But you know, I think
what's happening at the federal level that's gonna be really
tough to fix, to put it lightly, but where we
actually have the opportunity to exercise power, you know, where
are where the the base, the citizenry still actually believes
(05:40):
what we believe and will grant Republicans the actual ability
to exercise our influence are in these red counties, uh,
in red states. And that's why it's so important for
you know, states like Florida. You know, now it's you
know it it was a purple state. You know, now
due to you know, Governor Desante's influence, it's become a
red state. You know, in some of the other states.
(06:00):
You know, it's it's getting better. You know, Governor DeSantis
has really led the way. You know, it's it's you know,
I I could go on forever about how important it's
been to have him done in Florida, leading the way
and setting the example because for so many years, I
mean for people on the right, we don't even know
what winning looks like. We have no idea what excellence,
(06:24):
what greatness, what victory even looks like. And so we
didn't really have a barometer. So we had Asa Hutchinson
here in Arkansas, who was the governor for eight years.
He was terrible, you know, obviously the governor out in Utah.
You know k Ivy, the governor of Alabama, she's terrible.
Tate Reeves Mississippi. I mean, they're all bad. But we
(06:44):
didn't even know it until Ron DeSantis came in there
and took a fifty to fifty red state and made
it a sixty to forty red state simply because of
the force of his policies and his leadership. Okay, like
he showed that, hey, we can have good thing. Okay,
like we can we can take on these wok corporations
(07:04):
like Disney. You know, we can remove Soros DA's when
they get out of line. We can take over higher education.
You know, we can actually move the needle and show
the rest of the country. And so, like, just as
any in business and sports and whatever, competition is a
good thing. And so Governor DeSantis has moved every other
red state governor to the right on the issues simply
(07:26):
because they've been humiliated by you know, the national news
and people in these red states like Arkansas looking like Hey,
like Asa Hutchinson, why aren't you doing what ron de
Santus is doing in Florida? And so obviously, like you know,
people's discussed with Asa Hutchinson. You know, he was the
guy who went on Tucker Carlson and was saying that,
you know, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley would have
(07:49):
agreed with, you know, transgender mutilation surgeries for children. Asa
Hudchson actually vetoed a bill in Arkansas that would have
made that illegal, and so and so we were fed
up with him, and we moved on to someone who's
definitely better than him, and Governor Sarah Sanders, and she's
implementing some good policies. But it really it started with
Governor Rondecantis in Florida. He has shown the way and
(08:12):
I can't emphasize enough how important that has been to
show the people on the right in this country that
winning is possible.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I think technically we have to say he is presidential
candidate Asa Hutchins, just to be clear. Just to be clear,
I think if he breaks one percent of the national vote,
you know, Jake, I'll next time that goes down.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I sincerely hope that he stays in the race through
the Arkansas Super Tuesday primary in twenty twenty four. I'm
genuinely curious to see what he will get in his
own home state. There's no way he lasts that long.
He'll probably drop out after Iowa forgetting you know, a
fraction of one percent. But I mean in Arkansas, he
wouldn't even get five percent of the vote in his
(08:57):
own home state, that's how reviled he is.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I want to come back and talk to you a
bit about, first of all, your story as it pertains
to your service in the Army Rangers, and then talk
a bit about Ukraine and some of what we've been
hearing recently about us role there, maybe a little more
substantial than is officially talked about. I mean I always
assume that the role is I've thought that all along,
(09:20):
but you know, secret squirrel stuff. We all know what
goes on. But we'll come back here in just a second,
because guys, you got to have life insurance. You know,
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first off, tell everybody what years, what years were you
in I just wanted to talk a little bit about
(10:47):
your military service where we talk about the national security
side of things right now. When did you first get
into the Army?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
So I joined the Army in the summer of twenty seventeen.
You know, I played four years of professional football for
the New England Patriots. You know, won a Super Bowl
with those guys single handedly. You know, it wouldn't Brady,
wouldn't Belichick. It was all me. You know. After I
got done solidifying that dynasty, I went to law school.
(11:13):
You know, my my my intention wasn't to practice law.
You know, I was really hurt after I left the NFL,
so I went to law school to get healthy. And
when I was in d c H in law school,
I just, I really, you know, my ultimate plan was
was a serve in the military. And I didn't want
to be a jag and I was getting close to
the age limit, so you know, I just I decided
it was the best thing to do to to drop
(11:33):
out of law school and join the Army. And that's
what I did. I went through basic training Officer Canada school.
You know, went through the UH Infantry Officers course. I
went through ranger school.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I have questions. I have questions. Hold on, Yeah, like,
was there a point at which you were you were
in your let's say your first or second week of
basic training or something, and you're a little bit you
did you ever have the thought You're like, maybe, I don't
know about this decision. I'm just wondering. That's a big
move to drop out of law school right to serve.
(12:06):
I mean, I think it's very honorable decision, it's great.
But did you did you know every day you were
going through it that this is what was for you?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
You know, I did. I mean, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna say it wasn't challenging, you know, but I
really I fully committed to making that decision. But yeah,
I mean there were some moments, you know, you're you know,
I went from having a really great apartment in downtown
Boston playing for the Patriots, you know, part of a
Super Bowl championship team, you know, to go into a
great apartment in Washington, d C. You know, go into Georgetown,
(12:38):
a great law school, to you know, being in a
in a sleeping bay of you know, sixty five eighteen
to twenty four year old Basic trainees. You know, just
kind of looking around at midnight, you know, man, Like, your.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Social options definitely decreased. Your service to the country increased dramatically, congratulations,
But your social options from being a NFL player in
Boston to being in Basic training, you know, not as
many cheerleads.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
But yeah, no, exactly, you know, but I was. I
was fully committed to making that sacrifice. And you know,
at the end of the day, I realized that it
wasn't gonna be it was gonna be a temporary, you know,
temporarily a difficult situation to go through Basic and go
through o CS and Ranger school. But you know, I
never lost sight of that goal, which was to get
my ranger tab and you know lead a rifle platoon,
(13:28):
which I was very blessed to have the ability to do.
And you know.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I was a herd. What's the hardest part of Ranger
school for you? For what did you find the most
challenging part of it?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It was the starvation. I mean, like truly, like there's
I lost about forty pounds in Ranger school. I went
in weighed about two hundred and forty pounds, got out
weighing two hundred. I can show you some photos another time.
I mean I was like a stick figure coming out
of there. My mom cried when you saw me at
Ranger School graduation. I was so thin. But you know,
coming from a football background, you know, I like to eat,
(13:59):
so that was that was a huge challenge. But sleep
deprivation and food deprivation is a huge part of the school.
You know, you get pushed to your mental, physical, emotional,
spiritual limits, you know, but that's that's how you forage
great leaders, you know, over that sixty two day course,
and you know, I was able to finish it in
the in the shortest amount of time, thank goodness, and
(14:19):
and get out of there and get to my platoon.
So yeah, I would say that the sleep depth, you know,
forty five minutes of sleep per night for like ten
straight nights, is not not ideal when it comes to
you know, rest, recuperation and being in a prime mental state.
But you know, that's just part of the deal.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Where do you end up deploying Iraq?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
So my my Brigade Combat Team with one hundred and
first Airborne we were stationed in uh northern Iraq, the
Kurdistan region.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Oh I ah, what were you're like in Suli or something?
I know, I know that area of the world pretty well.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
We were we were between Mosul and our Biel.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Oh Moses, that place back in the day, my time
in Moses. And that was a spicy location, let me
tell you. But that was uh what when were you there?
If you don't mind about a deck about it. I
mean and I was in the region, I will say
about a decade about a decade before you I mean
basically yea.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Before before twenty fifteen, because obviously that was the capital
of the Califade. You know when when Isis had their
had their brief rreaker.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, no, no, yeah, well I was there again in
the vicinity and that too specific. I was there on
the vicinity, uh you know, doing my uh analyst uh
you know, dressed as like a guy on a camping
trip thing. Right after or pretty close to what happened
was like they kicked all the bad guys, I mean
(15:43):
not all of them, but they they cleared out Flujah
Ramadi and that had been this is like oh six
oh seven period that you know, those had been and
bar province was just the worst, right, the heaviest fighting.
The Marines had to go in their house to house
to all that stuff. But a lot of them, the
suicide bomber rat lines and the bad stuff switched up
north to Mosul coming in. So that was yep. So
(16:05):
I remember I remember going spending some time with some
of the SF teams out there and trying to see
what could be done to stock because these guys were
going into marketplaces with you know, suicide vest are actually
car bombs all the time, just you know, blow up
thirty fifty eighty people. Whatever it was. It was really
really awful stuff. But so when you were there, it's
fascinating actually because when I was there it was horrible,
and then when you were there it was horrible. It
(16:27):
was like the main spots. So what were you doing?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
So it was a really interesting mission set. You know,
it was a combination of patrols. You know, we were
doing some diplomatic stuff, you know, meeting with the uh
you know, provincial governor you know this Ninila province, so
the provincial governor of the Iraqi. Yeah, the their version
of a core level commander was stationed with us, you know,
so we were coordinating air strikes. You know, we we
(16:53):
had some guys going out on target. So, I mean,
it was a it was a really interesting kind of
all encompassing mission set. It was great for for a
young lieutenant to get out there and kind of see
everything that was going down. And this was this was
a couple of years after you know, we had cleaned
out Isis, you know, but there were obviously still I mean,
as you know Mosl and Rbil, Curtis Dan. It's kind
(17:15):
of a confluence of a lot of different ethnicities. You know,
it was an old trading route historically, so there was
a there's a you know, a lot of a Sunni
Shia conflict happening in that part of the you know,
that part of the Middle East. And you know, obviously
in in the late twenty tens, that was when Iran
first really started to uh flex on that area. You know,
(17:37):
the Isis was was Sunni and so once Isis got
cleaned out, the Shia you know, came in and decided
they were in charge. Obviously, the these Shia backed or
these I Ran backed Chia militia groups, the SMGs, you know,
we're all over the place. It was a really fascinating
and and pretty intense mission set out there. But you know,
like I said, it was a it was a good experience.
(17:57):
It was a good deployment. I deployed with some great people, uh,
and not just army. You know, we had some you know,
we had some some Marsat guys, Marine raiders, we had
some Air Force j tax with us. You know, we
had some some guys from your with with you with
your training who were with us. So it was a
it was a really outstanding deployment.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
So what I wanted to ask you, I wanted to
get that background. It's so interesting too, by the way.
I mean, I everyone that I talked to who deployed
your rocker Afghanistan before you, it was it's always roughly
my contemporaries, you know, other few years before, a few
years after being in that part of the world. But
you know, now, of course we have people that were
dealing with like you, dealing with the isis uh situation
(18:43):
uh up in up in a rock specifically obviously Afghanistan
kind of continued much much longer. If I if I
got to ask you something, I'd be curious if someone
told you that you could go and advise the Kurds
just theoretically, if this kind of thing we're happening, I
don't know, But if I told you that you could
(19:04):
go and advise the Kurds on the ground, I'm sorry
the Ukrainians. You already advise the Kurds, the Ukrainians on
the ground to help them against the Russians. I really
mean this honestly, Like, would you want any part of
that fight? Would you say, you know what, I want
to go and possibly, you know, take the risks of
(19:26):
we all know what can happen over there. How would
you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I would advise the Ukrainians to make peace as quickly
as possible on the best possible terms they could get,
because I think that's that is the best possible outcome
for them right now. And that's that's not the narrative
that you get from the mainstream media. You know, obviously
they you know a lot of these people, these warhawks
and neocons and and you know, unfortunately lids now you know,
(19:51):
they're they're willing to fight to the last drop of
blood of someone else, you know, like namely the Ukrainian people.
You know in the alley, guys who are who are
helping them in that fight. But you know, I just
think that you know, I'm I'm not willing to go
over there or send someone that I love to go
fight for the territorial sovereignty of the frontiers of Eastern Europe,
(20:14):
especially when there's ethnic conflict there that you know, most people,
you know don't even have the beginnings of an understanding of.
And you know, especially when here in the United States
we don't have territorial sovereignty over our own country. You know,
let's just let's just be very blunt. I mean, we
we don't have a southern border. You know, I talk
to people who are with border patrol. There's actually kind
(20:35):
of a developing story that's you know, people who are
plugged in or following. Actually, our northern border is actually
becoming more and more of an issue. You know, these
these you know, these.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
In the numbers are a lot smaller, but the percentage
increase is substantial.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Absolutely, and and you know it makes sense because there's
not as much media attention on our northern border now,
and so you know, in the in the age of
globalization and transportation, people can get.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I mean I think that if if you can
get to Mexico your chance. Now, I've spent a fair
amount of time at the border and a bunch of
different locations right along sup border patrol, spending time with
those guys and gals. You know, I would I would
bet that. I mean, if you were telling me, never
mind getting getting myself into the country illegally, if I
(21:21):
chose to do that across the southern border, I'd give
ten to one odds that I'm able to get into
the country.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Now that's not including the idea of like surrendering, right,
I mean, because that's what a lot of the family
units and others have done. But if you're just saying
straight shot into America, I think ten to one I
can because I know the cartel games, I know.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
What they do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
So if you just replicate that, you'll be able to
get in pretty easily. Put them at the northern border,
you know, I feel like that's wide open. That's got
to be super easy to get across. We have almost
no protection up there whatsoever. So if people figure out, well,
if you can, you know, if you can fly to camp,
especially for the people that aren't coming via foot and train,
you know, from Central America, specifically in Northern Triangle countries.
(22:01):
People forget they're coming from Piland, They're coming from West Africa,
they're coming from China, from pakist all over the world right,
the illegal traffic across the border, so that means planes.
So at some point it is interesting to think about.
You know, I guess it depends on who you know,
who's allowed into Canada, but it would be easier to
come across from.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You asked me a question, I mean, what's what's a
fight that I believe in? Securing America's borders as a
fight that I believe in. I mean, I made the
point on social media a couple of months ago. It's
it's always struck me as strange that, you know, you
have these these these warhawks and neocons and everyone, you know,
beating the war drums, you know, supporting literally every possible
(22:43):
foreign intervention, you know. I mean, like they'll back any
proposed military action if it's done by NATO or the
United States.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Or the UN.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
But you never hear them mention like destroying the Mexican
drug cartels or you know, utilizing America's armed forces to
supplement border patrol on the southern or northern border, and
like look, I'm I'm not someone who trusts the Pentagon,
the DD or our military establishment to do the right
thing at all times. But it's just curious to me
they've never never even floated that. You never hear Lindsey Graham,
(23:16):
you know, talking about like, you know, spinning up America's
military to destroy the cartels. He may have jumped on
that bandwagon after people pointed that out, but I just
think that's strange. That's a fight that I believe in.
I mean, you want to solve America's recruiting crisis, and
when it comes to military personnel, you know, like actually
have a you know, a a dedicated campaign. I mean
like like Trump kind of dipped his toe in on
(23:37):
possibly using the military. I mean one of the one
of our sister brigades with one hundred and first Airborne
was you know quote deployed to Arizona and on the
southern border. They didn't really do anything. They didn't have
the authority to really interdict, you know, the illegals coming
across the border. But I mean I would love I mean,
like some of our best military, uh you know leaders.
I believe Douglas MacArthur, when he was a young Luke
(24:00):
Tennant or captain. He was involved in the you know,
the Poncho Villa cross border raids. And I mean like like,
using the military to secure our southern border has long
been well within the traditions of American foreign policy. So
I mean, that's a fight that I believe in.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Let's come back to that in a second. So when
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you were you were up there in northern Iraq. You
saw the situation with ISIS, which was a there was
a little more conventional actually military fight than what I
had seen, which was a clearly a counterinsurgency.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It was much more find the bad guys, kicking the
doors and arrest them if possible. Often it wasn't possible, cartels,
fighting the cartels with the military, and obviously the intelligence
force intelligence community would be a big part of this too,
because it would be kind of like dealing with al Qaeda,
you know, looking for individuals and networks and things like that.
(26:01):
Not you know, brigade versus brigade combat maneuvers. What do
you think of that idea? Did we send the military
after the cartels in Mexico?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Well, I think it's a it's an all the above strategy.
I mean, you leverage intelligence, you leverage your power, and
obviously you leverage you know, conventional and special ground forces.
You know. But I'm just I'm tired of people who,
you know, you mentioned things like this and they just
kind of scoff like it's not possible. I mean, you know,
look at what Naive Bucal is doing in El Salvador.
(26:31):
I mean, this is a guy who I mean, I'm
as high on this guy as a world leader as
I am on anyone. I mean, he's he's one of
these guys who's just who's showing He's showing the world
what's possible with genuine leadership. I mean El Salvador, you know,
had the the world's highest murder rate not too long ago,
and you know, it would it's laughable, it would have
(26:51):
been laughable to assume that, you know, someone could come
in there and neutralize these gangs that have been terrorizing
and ruining the country for generation. But he came in
and did that and it wasn't easy. And yeah, I
mean that he was a mixture of you know, hard
and soft power. But it is possible, and you know,
we just you know, I use bucal At as an example,
(27:12):
you know, I use Governor Ron DeSantis as an example.
I mean, just people on the right in America, we
don't even know what excellence looks like. We don't even
we don't have any conception about what is or is
not great. And you know, we have these beacons. We
have people who are showing us, hey, if we just
have people, if we have leaders on our side who
have the will, who have the force of will to
(27:33):
actually do this, who were going to pin their ears
back and just get it done, I mean like, yeah,
well you know, like you kind of you know, it's
it's as Coach Belichick would say, it's it's part of
the process. You know, it's it's it's something that you know,
you you know, you adjust and things go wrong, you
fix them, and things you know, you you get it
done over time. But it starts with just having that
iron will that you're not going to let anyone tell
(27:55):
you that it can't be done. You have an in
state in mind, and you know you're not gonna know
just one more thing about like about you know, this,
this this idea of leadership I'm sick of. You know,
for so many years people on the right were captive
to people like Frank Luntz and you know, people who
like they think that leaders are supposed to follow public opinion.
(28:17):
You know, you know, one of the greatest things about
Governor DeSantis is he's very clear that he doesn't govern
by following public opinion. He has the Steve Jobs model
of leadership in mind. And you know, Steve Jobs is famous.
I think he borrowed this saying from Henry Ford. You
know I'm paraphrasing, but essentially he said, you know, people
don't know what they want. You have to show them
what they want and then they'll follow you. You know,
(28:38):
like like, no one could have envisioned the iPhone. They
wouldn't have responded to a Frank Lunz poll and said
I want an iPhone. No, Steve Jobs showed them the iPhone,
and then of course now everyone has an iPhone. Same
thing with the vehicle, and the same thing with leaders
like Naive Bukele and Ron DeSantis. That's what leadership is
it's not following, you know, Frank Lunz's polls. It's actually
you know, like like having the will to solve a
(29:01):
problem and showing the people that it is possible. So
that's I mean, I want to see more people like
that rise in American politics or else. You know, we're
in We're in deep trouble.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
It's fascinating that Bucule and El Salvador used prison labor
prisoners MS thirteen prisoners to destroy I'm sure you saw
this the graves of MS thirteen gang members because they
were being used as gathering sites in the cemeteries. So
they just if your gravestone said anything about MS thirteen,
(29:31):
they just turned into rubble. Not allowed to have public
displays of anything having to do with Mars Salvatrucia. He's
hardcore about it, man. He treats it like he says this.
I've heard him in an interview saying that he views
the threat of MS thirteen the way that he thinks
people in Germany should treat Nazism, which is that it
is a threat to the live, safety of lives and
(29:55):
safety of the people, and also a threat to the
very integrity of the state. Itself, and for a small
country in Central America to take that approach and obviously
have some results early on, I think is really interesting.
I've got a couple of NFL questions for you, and
we come back in a second here, So hold on
for a minute. Everybody, you will see if you're watching this,
if you're not watching, if you're only subscribing on the podcast,
(30:15):
which most of you listen to the podcast, But there's
also YouTube. Go to YouTube dot com slash box Sex
and we've got video there. You can see that my
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mister Beckett, First all, you mentioned Bill Belichick. I know
a million people have asked you, but I haven't.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
What's you like? Well, he's a genius. He's one of
the greatest leaders I've ever been around in the civilian
world or the military. I did my last podcast actually
on the Patriots Dynasty in what we used to call
the Patriot Way, and you know, Coach Belichick had a
very simple set of rules for the team. You know,
(32:02):
do your job, work hard, be intentive put the team first.
You know, those those were the four rules you know
that you had to abide by when you you know,
when you when you step into the Patriots facility, you know,
when you became a New England Patriot. And you know
he was he was able to push us very hard.
I mean, there were so many stories of other veterans
coming in from different teams, either by trades or free
(32:22):
agency or whatever, and after a week or so, you know,
they would just quit the team. I mean, like big
name guys like you know, Reggie Wayne, Robert Gallery, Kellen Winslow.
I mean, like you know, brand name players. And I'm
not denigrating these guys, but you know they would come
in and after seven, seven or ten days of Patriots
training camp, they would go to Bill and just say, hey, coach,
(32:43):
you know this isn't for me. I'm gonna retire, and
like that's you know, other other players who came in
could not believe how hard you worked, how hard Bill
coached the players. You know, but we were all on
the same page, you know, we all marched and the
beat of the same drum. You know, Tom Brady was
a huge, huge reason for that. You know, I like
to tell the story of my first ever Patriots team meeting.
(33:06):
You know, I'm a brand new rookie coming in there
in May. It was like our first first spring mini
camp team meeting that the team had just lost the
Super Bowl to the Giants the year before that. I
got there and you know, he was just kind of
the first team meeting, kind of a nothing meeting. Bill's
just kind of laying out his expectations for Mini camp
and Tom Brady comes in and he's sitting front row center.
(33:26):
You know, he didn't have to do that, but he
sat front row center every single day, and in this
first ever team meeting, I'm sitting there, Brady's just he's
got his notepad, He's sitting up and he's just scribbling
notes furiously. He's trying to soak in every bit of
knowledge that Bill was sharing with us. And he had
probably heard the same meeting ten or fifteen times, the
same spiel, but he was trying to glean that extra
(33:47):
bit of knowledge. But I think what he was really
doing he was setting the example for all the new guys.
He was he was setting the tone for everyone else
who was sitting right behind him in that team meeting. Room,
you know, in the rows above him, and you could
see Tom Brady just just so attentive in taking notes
and engage intellectually and mentally engaged. And you know that
(34:09):
was that was the kind of leadership we had from
the coaching staff, from the Marquee players, guys like like
Tom and Gronk and Vince will Fork and Matthew Slater
and so many others. You know, it was just an
absolute machine. And that I tell stories like that to
really explain what is the Patriot Way because it's not
just for football, you know, it's for any Any leader
can learn from the Patriot Way. You know, whether you're
(34:31):
in politics, or in business or in media, whatever it is.
You know, if you if you follow those rules and
you and you hold people accountable, do your job, be attentive,
work hard, put the team first, you're going to have success.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
What was your favorite part of being an NFL What
were you a linebacker? By the way, is that right?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
I was a defensive end, tight end, special teams player,
I was. I was a utility guy. Okay, I kind
of did everything.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
What was your favorite part of playing in the NFL
and what was the part that wasn't so great.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I mean, the best part was being around people who
were the greatest at what they do. And you know
I was I was very you know, humbled to be
drafted by them in the third round and just I
didn't take it for granted to be around some of
the great the greatest coach of all time, the greatest
quarterback of all time, some of the greatest players in
the league. You know, I think Gronk was the best
tight end of all time. You know, I was in
(35:26):
the same tight end meeting room as him for two years.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
He seems like a fun guy, by the way, Is
he a fun guy? Is that? Is that real?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Gronk is exactly who you imagined him to be. I'll
tell you a Gronk story. So Gronk, you know, every
member of the Patriots players and coaches and staff, we
had these key fobs that gave us twenty four to
seven access to the facility, you know, at any time,
and like during the off season especially, guys come up
there at night or early in the morning to get
a work out in, getting the hot tub, col tub, whatever.
(35:53):
And you know Gronk, you know, during the off season,
he would, you know, he'd go out in Boston or
Providence or whatever. You have a great time, stay out
till two or three in the morning. And he would
have his buddies drop him off at the Patriots facility
at like three thirty in the morning. So he would
fob in and go straight to the training room and
he would find one of the training tables and just
(36:15):
like pass out, just stretch out and go to sleep.
And so when the trainers would come in in the morning,
they would see Gronk like still in his like you know,
like night life clothes, just like sleeping there. They would
roll up his sleeve at stick an IV in his
arm and just kind of revive him and he would
get up after a couple hours and just go be
like the dominant force that he was. It was about
(36:37):
that time that it was about that time that I
realized that, you know, some people are more talented than others,
that he had a pretty high ceiling like I was,
you know, I was getting plenty of sleep, do it
everything right, and like still, this guy was the greatest
tight end that I had ever seen, you know, but
he was. He was a great player, a great teammate,
you know, despite like having a good time on the weekends.
(36:58):
He worked his butt off when he was you know,
when it was time to do that, and he was
just a joy to be around. I mean, just a
hell of a great guy.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Was there anything, though? I mean just physical punishment to
your body or like, what was the what was the thing?
If you had to point to one thing. I mean,
you're playing in the NFL, right. I feel like when
people get to that level of success and something that's
as heralded as that, there's a maybe for a lot
of folks, a public perception of like it just must
all be amazing. Nothing is all amazing, right, I mean
we all know that. So what was either the challenge
(37:28):
or the thing you wish you could change, you know,
something that you're just like, ah, that part of it's
maybe it was a surprise. Maybe it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. I mean
it was. I mean, I told you those stories of
some of the greatest NFL players of all time to
strip quitting because of how tough it was. And yeah,
there's a lot of physical punishment that goes into playing
at that level. And you know, Bill's old school. He
came from the Bill Parcells school of coaching, and I
mean that was like full contact practices as much as possible,
(37:58):
you know, all kinds of hitting. We probably did more
hitting in New England that we did, you know in
my college days at the University of Arkansas. So you know,
it was a it was a huge you know, it
was very very tough on your body, you know, very
tough mentally to to to survive and thrive and that
and that tough of an environment. But you know, it
was a great preparation for what I was, you know,
(38:19):
gonna do in the military and Rager school, and you know,
at the end of the day, you know, God had
a plan. I would have loved to have played for
a bit longer in the league, but you know, I
wouldn't change it, Like going back, I would not change
a single.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Thing institutionally getting a Patriots cheerleader frowned upon or encouraged
for players.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
So, uh, they're actually I'm pretty sure it was actually
it was against their rules.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
For from other another situation I keep going, which I
think obviously everybody.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, I mean there there is you know, there is
kind of a double standard there. It's from from what
I remember, it is true that I mean, there were
no restrictions on us. I mean, we coul date whoever wanted,
but for the Patriots cheerleaders, they would get fired if they,
you know, we were caught with one of the players.
I'm pretty sure Gronk's longtime girlfriend is a former Patriots cheerleader,
(39:12):
and like that's that's what happened, is you know, they
got outed in their relationship and and she got canned
or maybe maybe like they went public after she was
done or something. But yeah, I'm pretty sure it's against
it's against their the cheerleader rules, you know, and that's you.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Know, hey that I think that's kind of ridiculous, the
cheerleader code of ethics.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
I mean, come on, yeah, I mean I think that's
that's kind of absurd. Like, I mean American, Like there's
an old Sports Illustrated cover of when when Miami won
one of their national championships, you know, the you there's
this famous you know photo of you know, one of
the players on the field aft of the game, you know,
kissing the cheerleader. I mean, like people love that. Like
what's wrong with that? I Mean, I I really don't see, uh,
(39:54):
you know, any problem. Maybe it's just me. I don't know,
maybe there's there's some other rationale that I'm not seeing,
but I I thought that was kind of a dumb policy.
And you know, I'm glad that Grant got his girl.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
There we go. Yeah, I think I think all the
men of America are hitting your second and some of
the ladies. I'm sure tour segus. That's absurd, but anyway,
not an important topic, but I was curious. Anyway, Jake,
you're doing great work. Where should people go to listen
to your podcast?
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Yeah, we're on all platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, the
Jake Beckett Show podcast like subscribe, leave a good review.
You know, it's been great. We're seven or eight episodes
in right now, and it's been a great project thus far.
So give us a give us a listen there, and
you can find me on social media on Twitter at
(40:39):
Jake Beckett ninety one. So yeah, that's that's where you
can find me.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Jake, thank you for your service and thank you for
your time.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Man.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
I appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Buck
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