Andy Stumpf
Appearances
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, there's a difference between post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth. And sometimes it breaks people, and sometimes it unlocks a level that I, again, believe that allows you to become a better version of yourself. That takes time, though, and it takes a willingness to reach out for help when you need it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
But I can tell you right now, from what I've heard, again, to tie it back into DEI or the wokeness ideology, not a single portion of that is going to help the warfighter at that level that is being asked to make those decisions. That stuff, it's not helping them be a soldier. It's not helping them be more lethal.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And it's certainly not helping them deal with any of the long-term consequences that can come from the occupation.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the benefits that especially the soft community, and then it can get even more refined as you dive in and you screen for the JSOC commands. The soft community, regardless of the military branch, is so much smaller than the greater military branch. So in the Army, let's say it was Rangers or Green Berets.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You have per person in those units, so much more money to train and they focus on hyper realistic training. I mean, it's so much more than going to range and shooting an E type silhouette with no reaction whatsoever. I mean, you can elevate it to force on force training. And we used to do this in a desert environment. And it was essentially high speed laser tag that
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
would shut down your weapon's ability to shoot a laser out if you were contacted and people could coordinate in real time and put people down for down man drills or introduce medical situations. And then in an urban or internal environment, we're shooting at each other with wax bullets that hurt and elicit a normal pain response.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And inside of that, we're using role players and simulated explosions
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
and daytime and nighttime and assets and what you're trying to do because it's a smaller unit and our budget writ large is so much larger than say what an aircraft carrier can do because we can get a budget probably not that big but the seal community could probably get an aircraft carrier's budget but we're only talking about 2 000 people versus a massive infrastructure with 5 000 people and all the things associated with that so it becomes this hyper realistic training
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
that i believe it does a very good job of preparing you to get overseas but at the back of your mind you always know that in a training environment yes of course there's a risk to life because you could fall out of a helicopter a helicopter could crash there could be an accident but you can't really replicate
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
the real two-way range where somebody is shooting lead or rockets back at you or a real IED that you might step on. And again, I can only speak for myself. The first time I was ever shot at for real, I didn't even realize it because we were sitting in a helicopter and I was covered in chem bio gear. We were hitting the number one target, chem bio target in Iraq at the kickoff.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
The first objective, we flew like four hours in to hit what ended up becoming an agricultural school, dressed up as if we were gonna go into sarin gas. And we were getting shot at a minute before we landed, and I couldn't see a goddamn thing. I didn't even know about it until after we got back and we looked at the helicopter. There's like 28 holes in this thing. So it progressed beyond that.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I never lost that sense of fear. The fear is always there. But what helps is that hyper-realistic training. And what helps even more than that
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
is your bond with the people to your left and right you might be scared shitless but if you see somebody to your left or right that you deeply care about that you came through the same pipeline that you've worked with for years and they're doing something or they're in a vulnerable position you're going to take action to help them or to try to get them out of that vulnerable position or to support them but it's still it's an interesting mental geometry
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You know that that thread is there and you work your way through it. But the key to that, I think for most people is that hyper, hyper realistic training. It really does help.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
It's not far off. but that shit freaking hurts you're like damn it every time how the fuck you hit my hand every single time those things suck man so i don't want to give anybody ideas but hypothetically if you were to put your sim rounds in the freezer overnight it could always be like winter right yeah the hand hurts so bad i tell you what hurts worse is the back of the calf
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
It drops people like a sniper shot to the chest.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, and that goes back to the training. I mean, the shooting standards, even in a conventional team, I mean, there's an E-type silhouette, but then there's an A-zone inside of the E-type silhouette, which is going to be much tighter where the vitals are generally going to be.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And up on the head, yeah, there's the space of the head that you can shoot at, but again, there's that A-zone in there as well. And, you know, as somebody who served on the Navy side of JSOC, I've heard it so many times, right, the comparison between Delta and seals. And, you know, I am not one to say anything other than I have the utmost respect for that organization.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I actually was able to train and deploy with them one time. And I still have very close friends that were associated with that command and they're amazing. And I, and I think what would shock people is,
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
is it's not really like the movies the speed that we move on target isn't incredibly fast it's calculated it's like 3d real-time chess there's not a lot of yelling you're not i mean if i had to choose between to go to your example of a somali shooting at me if i have to have somebody shooting at me i'm going to request that they're on full auto because you're not going to hit anything your most accurate round is going to be your first one unless we're like five feet away from each other but what you'll notice is professionals i had uh you know our weapons in the military i had
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
safe, single round and fully automatic. I never once flipped it to fully automatic because I have to carry the ammunition that I'm in the field with. And I'll let somebody dump an entire mag at me and take my time and get a, you know, a stable shooting position, hopefully behind cover and take one shot because that's what a professional does. And it, it is in it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I wish people could see how surgical and precise it is. these tip of the spear special operations forces are. They would be so underwhelmed at the speed. They would be shocked at the lack of communication. It's almost all done off of body language because these people, all they do is practice this. They are absolute surgeons and specialists in the conduct of warfare.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, I don't know if I can live up to that intro. I'll do my best. I aim to set the bar low and then just stumble over the top of it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, you know, given my military background, I was fortunate or unfortunate, depending, I guess, on how people view it, to be around amazing and explosive and powerful ordnance. But I truly think the most impactful and probably will be the best description of it. The most lethal tool that human beings actually have access to is leadership. And there's not a one size fits all model.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Leadership is very difficult. And to go with what you were saying about when you need to be more of a supporter versus you need to be a little bit more directive, that comes from, it's a combination of IQ and EQ. And you have to, each person is different. What I will say is this, in the military, leadership is actually easier because of what we talked about
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
when we first got on this, the selection and the refinement and the training. I mean, 80% of people who attempt to become a SEAL, they don't make it. And then another 40% of those people who attempt to go to a JSOC level aren't going to make it either. So the person on the far end of that has such an amazing level of buy-in that you can lead in almost any way that you want to.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You can be very directive. And let's also not forget they're contractually obligated to be there. So if they don't like you as a leader, they can't really go anywhere because they got to serve out their commitment. Civilian leadership is so much more difficult because people are, you know, I own a coffee shop as an example.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
The average age of the employee that we have is 17 to 19 years old and they're there for a variety of reasons and they're not going to make it a vocation and they're going to come and go. It might be seasonal or they might have a relationship. If I treat them like I did the people that I worked with in the military, I would have zero employees. So it takes more nuance. It takes more time.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
It takes more EQ to understand what motivates people and what drives people. But leadership is the most powerful tool that human beings have access to. It trumps the power of anything that I have seen overseas in some way, somehow, especially in the civilian world.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
We've lost this emphasis on being a leader and people, the mistake I think people make is when they hear, well, you know, leadership, they're looking to somebody else. Leadership is about how you view yourself. Don't look to somebody else to be your leader. I mean, fuck, look in the mirror and start leading yourself and your family at a local level.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Every team, regardless, I mean, if you have 10 of the most highly refined selected operators, the best military operators on planet earth, there's still a bottom 10%. Right. And in that cohort, they're a turd. So the dude at the top of that is the most amazing operator ever. And they're looking down the line, like you fucking suck. Right.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Now to everybody else, that would be the top performer in any sector everywhere. So, and I totally agree with you. Great leaders, I mean, they can enhance everybody. So you can polish the turd a little bit, but guess what? It's still a turd in the bowl at the end of the day. But you can actually, and I wish people want, equality of outcome is not something I agree with.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Equality of opportunity, I definitely agree with. And the difference in those two things is people's ability to perform. And let's just be honest, we're not all created equal. Some people are smart and some people are idiots. And that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And nothing is going to make the idiot a smart person.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
But a great leader can take that smart person and maybe turn them into a genius or unlock for that person their genius capability. Leadership is a great tool. But as human beings, we all have glass ceilings. And when you hit that, as much as it may suck, I'm sorry, that might be your station in life.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
So to even get to BUDS on your first day, you volunteered multiple times and you've taken physical screening tests that if you pass them, you possess the physical ability to graduate. People don't quit because of the muscles above the neck. They quit because they get fatigued. Actually, I need to flip that. The muscles below the neck, right, the combat chassis, if you will,
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
It can tolerate so much, they quit because they get tired of the grind. And I describe buds as sandpaper. If I told anybody to get a piece of sandpaper and on your first day, you're gonna take it across your knuckles with a good amount of pressure. People can do that.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And they might do it the second day and the third day, but two months in when your knuckles are red and raw and there's pus seeping out of it, And I keep telling you to take the same piece of sandpaper across your knuckles. That's where you start separating the wheat from the chaff. And it's not that your body can't physically take it. You talk yourself out of it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
So there is a huge physical component to being at Bud's. But when I went back to an instructor there for 18 months and actually talked to the students about why they quit, Almost nobody expressed anything physical. They expressed that they got overwhelmed with the totality of their goal and how far they were from where they wanted to be to their current station in life.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
There were 120 days from graduation, 130. And they said to themselves, there's no way I can keep doing this for that long. And they quit. It was more mental than physical almost every single time.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah. There's no heater. And it's almost as if the instructors know this because we all went through training. So there is an instructor, like my main tool to get people to quit is I would sit there and I would talk to them about how long I was going to keep them in that water. How long do you think you can tolerate this? Oh, you think this is going to be 30 minutes?
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Maybe today we're doing two hours. You don't know. And maybe hypothetically, I would set up a picnic table with steaming hot, hot chocolate on there and say, Hey, if you want to end this right now and get one of these, come on up. All you need to do is say, I quit, you know?
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, it's, you know, I... There's pros and cons to the internet. One of the wild things is you can see things that are going on all over the world. And sometimes in my feed, these drones from Ukraine show up. And what they are doing over there and the velocity that warfare is shifting is unbelievable. I mean, they're chasing people down and exploding them into pieces with drones.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I mean, these drone operators, I have no idea how far away they are. But that is not a threat that I had to face when I was in. And I'm really thankful that I didn't have to. So it is changing. I do believe that the U.S. military is aware of this and that they are changing as well. A lot of people are talking about what's going on in New Jersey, and let me be clear. I want it to be aliens.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, you know, you hit on something that I don't know if maybe the listener would pick up on, and that is the cohesion. And one of the things about the military, specifically the units that I served in, even the conventional SEAL teams, you make it through BUDS, which is a six-month training pipeline. Everybody who wears a trident goes through that pipeline. It's a known origin.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
God, I think it would be awesome if we weren't alone. Like, come on down, guys. Let's have a beer. If you wanted to nuke us, you could have done it already. So I want it to be aliens. But I don't think it is. And the best example of why I don't think it is, is I can point people towards Operation Neptune Spear, which I was not involved with. But that was the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And a lot of people made a big deal about that. But to me, from somebody who was peripherally familiar with one of the programs involved with that. And almost nobody focused on it was the actual helicopters that were used to get there. And we left one of the helicopters in the courtyard because it crash landed. The technology being used with those helicopters, I never rode on those things.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I don't even think I actually saw them in person. But again, I was peripherally aware that that program existed. They had to create those things, test them only at nighttime. They had a reduced signature with both radar and sound. And my point in that is there are a lot of things that our government, specifically military,
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
that they are developing that they're not going to tell anybody about until they have to or until it meets the front page news criteria, which I was shocked. People can go on to Google. I'll talk about the program broadly because people can go on to Google and see pictures of that helicopter in the courtyard in Abbottabad. That, to me, was the biggest surprise that came out of that operation.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Talking to the guys that were there that night, they're like, yeah, man, it was just another Tuesday, a totally average target. That asset sitting there that I guarantee you was exploited by foreign adversaries within 24 hours was shocking to me. So I know that those programs exist. How that ties into the drone stuff and why they're in New Jersey, I'm not so sure.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And even though as much as I wanted to be the little green men, I'm reminded that there are areas out there in our government or in contractors working with our government where they're really pushing the front-leaning edge of what is possible. And the government's not going to tell us until either one of those things gets shot down or they're forced to.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You get to a conventional SEAL team. You've been through multiple crucibles, selection courses. You've been tested and refined and trained, and your level of buy-in
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You know, I did not want to go to BUDS as an instructor. I was injured on a target actually with the Delta guys. We were doing a cross-training deployment. I got injured in Iraq and the command I was at basically said, we're moving at a velocity that we don't need somebody who can't walk right now. So I got sent to BUDS and I didn't want to be there because I was loving my old job.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And after being there for 18 months, it was the single most rewarding tour of my career because I got to make sense of the curriculum that I was put through. And you've mentioned some of the tools that I had access to as an instructor. I could water, sand, of course, in combination, obstacle course, running, physical conditioning, sleep deprivation. We couldn't really mess with their food.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
That was actually one of the things we really had no control over. We could mess with when they got it, but not how much they got. And none of those tools are even remotely comparable in their effectiveness than the human mind. When I understood and when I sat down with these students and talked with them about why they quit, and it was this resounding narrative, I became overwhelmed.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
for the overall mission and the community and the command and then you can take it to another level an additional six months of screening at a jsoc command and the cohesion is without question you definitely have people who have different levels of belief but it's all reverse engineered towards crossing the threshold of the door overseas everybody is bought in on the mission everybody is focused on their role regardless of their personal beliefs because it is a melting pot of society
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I let my optic of time become so wide that I was only thinking big picture instead of staying in the small picture. I stopped using all of those other tools. I would let the instructors do that. And I weaponized people's mind against themselves. And all of those tools, those are all external. The most powerful one is the internal tool that you have. And you get to determine where your ceiling is.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yes, physically painful things hurt. But does it hurt enough that you need to quit? Nobody can answer that for you. But people limit and self-govern themselves so far before they get to the point of what they're capable of. It's a fascinating case study.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, man. Thanks for inviting me. And you guys know how to get a hold of me. I'll join you anytime. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And we're not this carbon copy repeat of each other. But we put all of that aside so that you can be as lethal as humanly possible. I mean, at the JSOC level, you are at the sharpest edge of the pointiest spear. And the only thing that you need to be thinking about, especially if you want to survive the sometimes and often very dangerous things that the country asks of those units,
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
is to be completely bought in on that mission. So anything subtracting from that lethality is a detriment to the people that are serving overseas, specifically in that role.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
You know, wokeness is an ideology that survives in an academic environment. In my own personal experience overseas, Combat and warfare, it doesn't care about your personal beliefs. It doesn't care about the color of your skin. It doesn't care about your gender, your age, any of those things.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
A bullet, I've never watched a bullet, not that you can really watch a bullet, but I've never seen a bullet or heard of a bullet carving around somebody because they were the DEI hire for that particular organization. It's a structure that falls apart in real life. And
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
fortunately in my experience even though i have heard in communication with people that are still in that there is this creep uh towards you could call it dei you could call it woke i would call it um and attention suck outside of lethality.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
That does exist even in a special operations world, but it's such a small community that they can do a better job of kind of pushing it away and focusing on that lethality. And it's one of the things though, that I hope will change with the oncoming administration.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And I'm very interested to see how Pete Hegseth approaches this, because at least listening to what he has said, he wants to be rid of all of those things. And from somebody who operated in that environment, and my opinion only counts for myself, I think that's what the military needs. It's what are we required to do on the battlefield? And everything is targeted towards exactly that.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
We reverse engineer from that. And in my own personal experience, wokeness and DEI doesn't appear in that calculus.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I mean, let's just be honest. The world was better before social media. Oh, God. You know, and stuff like... You could be yourself. I mean, we're all human beings and we all make mistakes, but now mistakes can be captured on social media and the internet lives forever. You know, the military...
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
and again i can only speak for the seal community it's heavily steeped in a drinking culture but having said that it's also steeped in the responsible use of alcohol at least from a doctrine level and actually now in the modern military one of the fastest ways you can be ejected administratively is what's called an alcohol related incident so it's an accepted portion of the culture but they expect you to be a professional both in your off time
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
and the time where you're clocked in overseas you know i don't know what it says about me um probably that i'm an but i love the fact that pete's potential nomination has people up in arms i love that the people who are like he's not a four-star general yeah that's the point
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
maybe you know maybe you don't need to be a four-star general to hold that position maybe four-star generals and admirals although there are some great ones out there maybe at that level you have become a politician inside of the military system and what we actually need is somebody who didn't get to that rarefied air and status or stratus and hasn't you know who can come in and give it a fresh look i mean if an old four-star general or admiral can it up why can't we give a younger guy a chance and you know give him some time behind the wheel and see how it goes yeah
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Yeah, you know, the way I describe it is, is that if you touch war, it's going to touch you back. And a lot of the time the narrative is around more of like a broken toy. Like if you go to war and you come back, the damage is so great that you have to be broken. And I haven't actually found that to be the case. The things that the military is asked to do, specifically my old job, they are.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I mean, if you were to just write it down on a piece of paper and have somebody read it out loud, the requirements that your job may entail, it's horrific.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
but you spend a career training um you know and again working with people being bought in on the mission statement being bought in on the cause being bought in for the country and understanding of what your actions are doing and tying into the totality of the united states and what it stands for but it shouldn't be romanticized the way you described it is correct if i look back at my old job
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
Almost everything that we did was to lead up to the point of, it's called 3FEA, find, fix, finish, exploit, and analyze. It's kind of the targeting process. But it is all based around finding an individual or organization, fixing them in place, and then getting an element to cross the threshold of a door somewhere in another country. to do something about an identified threat.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
And it shouldn't be romanticized. We should be able to have open and honest conversations about what we are asking certain segments of our population to do. And we shouldn't expect them to come back as the same person.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
But in my own personal experience, even though those things are horrific and they will weigh on you for the rest of your life, they can actually turn you into a better version of yourself. Like for me personally, I think I have a greater appreciation for what we have. I think I can love at a deeper level.
The Dan Bongino Show
Saving The U.S. Military w/ SEAL Andy Stumpf (Ep. 2392)
I have a deeper appreciation for my friends because I've seen those things just be taken away in an instant. And I actually wish that more people didn't share the experiences that I have, but they could at least share in some of what those experiences have given me from at least the view that I have of this country and the world.