Episode 510 Morgan Lerette Life After Blackwater Transcript

This transcript is from episode 510 with guest Morgan Lerette.

Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] You did your time. You wore the uniform, you followed the mission, but now you’re standing at the edge of the civilian world wondering if the chaos behind you ever really ended, or maybe just changed names.

Maybe you thought about contracting. Maybe you’ve heard the rumors. Big money, wild stories, no rules. But what’s the real price of trading a uniform for a paycheck and a rifle? Now picture this, you’re rolling through Baghdad in the Suburban. No clear rules of engagement, no backup, and the only reason you’re even there is because a buddy vouched for you.

That was Morgan Lerette’s World with Blackwater. Today’s episode isn’t about glorifying war or tearing it down. It’s telling the truth from the ground level, the kind of truth that gets left outta the press briefings and bestseller bios. From an army intel officer to private military contractor, Morgan’s story cuts through the noise with raw, unfiltered honesty and just enough dark humor to keep it real.

But before we [00:01:00] dive into this episode, make sure you’re subscribed to the email newsletter at driveonpodcast.com/subscribe. You’ll get my five favorite episodes sent straight to your inbox. No fluff. Just the best insights to help you drive on. I. I also wanna take a moment to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community.

The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians impacted by the global war on terrorism. This memorial serves as both a tribute to those who served and a way to ensure their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come.

If you want to learn more. Or find out how you can support the mission, visit GWOTmemorialfoundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.

[00:02:00]

Scott DeLuzio: Morgan, welcome to the show. I’m really glad to have you here to, uh, talk about your experiences and your insights, but I, I’ve been looking forward to this conversation.

Morgan Lerette: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, you bet. Um, I guess to start with, let’s, uh, talk a little bit about your background from your time in the Army and how you kind of transitioned into the private contracting role.

Morgan Lerette: Yeah. So I mean, the first thing to know is that I’ve never had a plan. I still don’t. Uh, but in, in 1999 before all these wars kicked off, was, it’s small town, USA, the recruiters were lining up, licking their lips, you know, poor white trash kid. They were like, this guy will go in. And they were right. so my grandfather looked at me and was like, he’s a World War II vet Army, and he goes.

If you’re gonna go in the military, join the Air Force, they have better food. Literally. The only thing I like, the only thought I put into that is better food.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: joined the Air National Guard right outta high school, uh, December, [00:03:00] 1999. And then, uh, everything was going great. I was gonna do all those sweet benefits, go to college.

Next thing I know, twin Towers fall down. I’m activated for two years. Went to. first pump was to Oman, and then I went to Jordan and then Kuwait, and then I racked her in the ground defensive, so that was my enlisted time. Made it to E five. My buddy was, who was in the International Guard with me, was like, dude, we should go work for Blackwater.

This was oh four. This was right after those guys got hanged in Fallujah.

Scott DeLuzio: Oh, okay.

Morgan Lerette: So nobody even knew what Blackwater was until that happened. And I was like, dude, good luck. You’re gonna have a great time. Like, and he is like, oh no, I’ll put in a good word for you. So he did. He went over to mooc, North Carolina, said, Hey, call my buddy. I got a call the next day and they said, do you wanna work for Blackwater? Literally, that’s the only way I got in. Some guy talked to some guy and vouched for me. There was no like resume. There’s no LinkedIn. You just kind of, you vouched for everybody. So. worked for Blackwater [00:04:00] for a year and a half, half of oh four Olive oh five. And then after that came home, uh, the entire economy crashed while I was over overseas, which I had no idea about. So I joined, uh, I joined the Army National, or not the Army National Guard. The Army, ROTC, up at Northern Arizona University. I wanted to fly helicopters

Scott DeLuzio: Okay.

Morgan Lerette: flown in them when I was in Iraq.

Thought it was really cool. And then they said, that is a six year contract and that doesn’t count your training time of a year and a half. So seven and a half years. And I said, I, I’m not gonna like the army that much. Screw that. So I went back into the Army as an intel officer. Um, they sent me back to Iraq, literally the same places I was working for Blackwater, but for way less money. And that’s how, you know, God’s got a sense of humor. And, uh, I did that after, after I got done with three and a half years, I ended up going to Boston, got my graduate degree from Tufts University, which has been in the news. You know, if they’re looking for deporting people, Tufts University is apparently a nice place to go. [00:05:00] and then now I’m, I’m just a working for the man.

Scott DeLuzio: I, I see that. Yeah. And I, I see your, your book on the, the side here for the, the listeners who are not watching this on, you know, YouTube or wherever. We end up putting this, um, I got your, your book there. Uh, guns, girls and Greed. Um, and that’s a interesting title and I kinda want to get into that book a little bit.

I know, know, it talks about the world of Blackwater and, uh, some of the things that you guys, you guys did there. Um, but before we get into that, uh, I, I just want, I, I thought it was a interesting, uh. Series of events that you went through, uh, in your career, you know, starting off, you know, enlisted, getting into Blackwater and then getting back into the military.

Um, I. Usually from the people that I’ve known that have gone into, uh, contracting, once they get the, the taste of the, the money that comes from [00:06:00] the, the contracting, uh, they, they don’t wanna look back at the military. But you did look back and you, you came back and, uh, you know, did, did a additional tour, um, you know, in, in the military.

So, um, what, what drove you to. Get out of Blackwater and go back into, uh, the military.

Morgan Lerette: You know, uh, I. I looked at my time contracting with Blackwater as a stepping stone, right? It was a job.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: lot of people want to conflate their time with Blackwater, with their time in the military and talk about it like it’s combined. It’s not, for me, it was always just a cash grab,

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: So I knew that it wasn’t sustainable.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: want to do it for the next 10, 15 years. I wanted to go over there and make my money and then go and have like a real normal human life, whatever that looked like. Um, I had no idea what that looked like. And when I, I got back home, I started getting my college degree. Now, anybody that’s ever transitioned outta the [00:07:00] military, or if you’re getting ready to go, use your post nine 11 GI bill,

Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

Morgan Lerette: go to college, get a degree in something besides criminal justice.

That’s what I got mine in. Uh, I can tell you right now, if you want to be a cop, go criminal justice. If you don’t want to be a cop, go criminal justice. I went criminal justice. I didn’t want to be a cop. So, um, it, it really getting your degree. gotta get something marketable business, uh, engineering, you know, something along those lines.

If you want to teach, go teach. But with a criminal justice degree, I didn’t know what the heck I was gonna do. So I, I just thought, well, what’s my next adventure? And my next adventure was, let’s go fly helicopters was the initial plan. Um, but it, it, it was a. I had to eat a lot of crow when I went back in the military.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm.

Morgan Lerette: you know, you go from being the Blackwater guy that can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, making as much money as, as he literally as I wanted, right? I could jump on a contract going in as a second lieutenant and having everybody think [00:08:00] that, you know, I’d never served a day in my life. And I was like, oh, geez.

It was, it was, it was a tough transition. I’m not gonna lie to you,

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: um, really, and, and I think this is something else for veterans getting out. Sometimes you gotta eat, you gotta eat the frog, right? Like it sucks. You went and you were in charge of 10 to 15, 30 people and then you go into corporate America and you’re in charge of one or two or, or nobody. And at the end of the day, like, does it really matter? Because I think, I think a lot of people get caught up in their ego. whereas I know I’ve always been, you know, the dumb white trash kid from Cottonwood, Arizona, and I’m willing to start at the bottom regardless. So I, I think that that’s really helped me out quite a bit.

Um, as I’ve trudged through this thing called life,

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and I think having, having, I don’t know if it’s, you know, humility or what it is that, that, uh, you might need to say, Hey. You know what I’m okay with starting from a lower position maybe than I was [00:09:00] in the military. Um, you know, they’re, a lot of times we have, uh, officers who are, you know, colonels and, you know, whatever, and they, they’re getting out thinking that they’re gonna be running the show wherever they, they go.

And they may not be, they may have, you know, a lot more, uh. Higher ups to report to than they might be used to. And, um, that, that type of thing, you kind of have to just be okay with, uh, in, in some cases, um, you know, and, and just kind of know that you might have to work your way back up the, the ladder. Um, because you know, the military experience, while it’s great and people do look for that in the civilian world, it’s doesn’t always equate to, you know, their.

Civilian world job experience. So, you know, yeah, you’re right. I think you, you might have to just be open to that, uh, possibility Anyways. Um, you know, getting back to your book though, guns, girls and Greed, uh, [00:10:00] definitely an interesting title. Tell us a little bit about the book and, uh, you know, what, what you, uh, what you, you put in there.

Some of the, the highlights.

Morgan Lerette: Yeah. Speaking of, speaking of officers, those are the ones that always write books and dude, I can’t stand most books by officers. most officers, and look, I’ll, I’ll just uh, admit it ’cause I got out. As a captain, you’re not doing the job, you’re doing the admin for the people that are doing the jobs.

And I love to read books about the guy that was on the ground, whether it’s, you know, the guy going through college or the guy that like, just had a kid. But really there’s, there’s a surf feed of books out there that talk about the, the war and all the strategy and all the other stuff. Uh, where people pat themselves on the back.

Mine’s the exact opposite. Mine is literally just saying, this is our job. This is what we did, this is how we did it, and it’s a real ground perspective of war. So it starts off with, uh, literally the first chapter starts off with one of the, one of the times I [00:11:00] ended up shooting at a car in Baghdad. And what does it feel like to go from safe? To fire and then you take that shot and what does that feel like? And really trying to put people into that position of where I was as a 23-year-old, you know, young adult. so it was really, it was really to try to get people to that ground level. And it’s also because every time I heard something about Blackwater, I was like, none of this stuff happened. To the people on the ground, right? Like Eric Prince has a book and he talks about how we were all Patriots and we saved Iraq. And then you have Jeremy Scahill that says, we were all the worst people on the planet. the truth is in the middle and the truth is on the ground. And that’s really what I wanted to write. And it’s everything from those mundane, boring conversations. Uh, somebody told me it’s like the perfect E four mafia book, right? Where you’re sitting there in a Humvee and you’re bored and you start coming up with these conversations like. Okay, so for $73 in a piece of chewed bubble gum, [00:12:00] would you go over there and show your ass to those people?

And it’s like, uh, and then you debate that for 45 minutes because that’s what you do most of war. 99% is boredom and it’s just punctuated by this. Pure adrenaline and you chase that adrenaline. And what does that feel like from the ground perspective? So I called the guns girls and grieve because that’s what we talked about, right?

We talked about our guns, we talked about our girls, whether they were back at home or we were going to go and, uh, purchase them, purchase them for. 10 to 15 minutes on the way home. Uh, or, and then the other thing is always like how much money we were making because all of us were pretty much just, you know, enlisted guys making the most money we’d ever seen in our entire life.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: it was always a huge topic of conversation.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that’s one of the big things that I’ve heard from some of the, the folks that I know who’ve gone into contracting is they’re, they’re just blown away by the amount of money that they’re making. And they, they’re like, I, I don’t know [00:13:00] where I would make this kind of money anywhere else. And so they, I mean, that’s the draw for them is, is the money, um, the greed I suppose, you know, in, in.

Your, uh, vernacular there with the, the book title, but, uh,

Morgan Lerette: I

Scott DeLuzio: you

Morgan Lerette: I, I don’t throw, I, I don’t pull punches in the book. I mean, that’s all there is to it. Like,

Scott DeLuzio: sure

Morgan Lerette: because I was greedy. I wanted the cash.

Scott DeLuzio: Uhhuh,

Morgan Lerette: myself a mercenary because I knew I was there for the cash grab. other people. Umbridge with that term and they say, oh, we worked for the State Department.

We weren’t mercenaries. Yeah, and you donated all your money to, to the kids’ orphanage in,

Scott DeLuzio: right?

Morgan Lerette: Uganda, right.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: You’re there for the cash. So I, I’m, I’m probably the most transparent contractor that’s that’s ever come out to say, oh yeah, no, we were there for the money. We didn’t give a crap.

Scott DeLuzio: Right. And you know, I, I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I mean, the, you know, greed has like a negative connotation to it. I, I don’t, I don’t look at it as a bad thing. I mean, you, you went out, you did a job, someone [00:14:00] said, Hey, I’m willing to pay you x amount of money for doing this job, and you said yes. So that’s like a normal, uh.

Morgan Lerette: Yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: You know, employer, employee relationship. Like, if, if you weren’t okay with that amount of money, you would say, no, I’m not gonna do it. And then they’d go find someone else to do it, or they’d realize, Hey, it’s too low and we gotta increase this price. And hey, you know what? They, they got you and you guys came to a mutually beneficial arrangement and it, it all worked out.

So, you know, I, I, I don’t.

Morgan Lerette: it benefited everybody but the people in Iraq.

Scott DeLuzio: Well, sure. I, I, I, I think I was looking at the employer employee relationship there and, uh, yeah, so the, the, the people, let’s talk about the people in Iraq and, uh, you know, kind of maybe what, what could have gone better for them, um, to, you know, make it so that it was a win-win win situation.

Morgan Lerette: Yeah, so let me, let me, I gotta delve into the history of it. So, uh, when we went [00:15:00] into Iraq during the ground defensive, and I was there, I. did not want to be seen as occupiers. Right? That was the big thing, George W. Bush saying, we are not going there to occupy. So we set up the CPA, the Coalition Provisional Authority Black Water Guys protected John Bremmer. Paul Bremmer, sorry. Um, and that’s really where black water got started. Now, as soon as we had the opportunity as a nation, we gave Iraq back to an interim government. And we said, this is no longer a combat mission. This is now a diplomatic mission because you guys own your country. Now once, once it became diplomatic, they started sending the CIA, the NSA, the State Department, U-S-A-I-D, you name it, all these guys over to help them build their nation.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: everybody that knew how to run a nation was a bath party member. And all those guys got booted out. So that’s where Blackwater came in. That’s Blackwater’s real origin story. Is they needed people to protect diplomats. [00:16:00] The security team that they had did not have any kind of combat experience. So who do you hire?

You hire a bunch of knuckle dragers like me, like that’s great. Now the problem with it is, is that you have the DOD that’s running combat operations and you have the state department that’s trying to run diplomatic operations and narrate the two shall meet, and then you throw in civilians that aren’t under the UCMJ. Aren’t under the State Department banner that don’t have the same rules of engagements. Uh, I mean, I never got a rules of engagement lecture when I got there, so it was just pretty much get this guy from point A to point B, he’s gonna help them, uh, learn how to run an airport or garbage, or, uh, we went to the stock exchange.

It was literally people writing in chalk on chalkboards.

Scott DeLuzio: Oh wow.

Morgan Lerette: over there, they’re gonna, you’re gonna teach them how to do this thing so they can build their nation in the process. With civilians on the battlefield. Um, we created a lot of problems for the military because we didn’t tell ’em where we were [00:17:00] going.

We didn’t tell ’em what we were doing. We would run up on military convoys all the time. They would run up on us. We’re the only ones in Suburbans. So at the end of the day, like common sense predicates, please don’t shoot the guys in Suburbans. Um, but we would also run people off the road and we would shoot at cars because car bombs were all the rage Back then, we didn’t have the same rules of engagement. And when you, when you many civilians in a battle space trying to. Not play nice with the military. It just causes frustration. And the frustration ultimately is gonna be born by the people of Iraq. So even though we were there to help you build your country, help you figure out how to pick up trash within neighborhoods, because nobody knew how to do that. Um, at the same time, we were running rough shot over Baghdad and the civilian population, this, this was told to me by somebody in Ramadi, uh, the civilians looked at contractors as the terrorists. And the military as their [00:18:00] allies. And look, I, looking back on it, I, I don’t really blame ’em. We, we just did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, so there’s really, they, they let you off the leash and you were able to do whatever you wanted for the most part. I mean, um, you, you know, you’re, like you said, you’re shooting at cars and, you know, probably not a bad thing because they could have been suicide bombers. Um. I don’t, maybe looking back, could things have been done differently?

Yeah, sure. I’m sure there could have been different ways of, of going about doing things, maybe ways of identifying you, you know, so that they knew, get out of this guy’s way, otherwise you’re gonna get shot. Okay. You know, like people driving around in Humvees, they, they probably figured okay with a, you know, 50 cal on top, that one you probably wanna get outta the way, but, you know, a suburban, I don’t know, it, maybe it wasn’t as obvious to them.

Um. Uh, but I don’t know, I don’t know what the, the right answer is [00:19:00] there, but, um, you know, I, I know, you know, contractors like, like Blackwater, they’ve been involved in place places all over the world, and, um, you know, they’re, they’re continuing to be used. I’m, I’m sure in places like Ukraine, uh, you know, in, in the things that are going on over there.

And, um. You know, there’s, there’s all sorts of different places where, uh, these contractors will fit in. Um, and I think just like in the military, you, you do a, an after action, uh, review and, and you, you look at what, you know, some things that went right, some things that went wrong, and then you try to get better from whatever that end result is that you, you come up with.

And I think, you know, as. You know, obviously the, the contractors are civilians and, and so they don’t necessarily fall under the, um, you know, the DOD or anything like that. But it, it would be probably beneficial from, um, I. [00:20:00] The federal level to look at the use of contractors and what were some things that went right and what were some things that went wrong, and, and maybe we can say, Hey, these are your rules that you have to now operate under.

Um, I think that might be, uh, and maybe that’s something that has happened, but, um, you know, I don’t, I don’t really know, you know, I’m not privy, but, but you would think, let’s, let’s do something like that and, and let’s, um. We got a lot of pushback with companies like Blackwater, um, you know, and including Blackwater.

Um, you know, a lot of things went wrong and ended up in the news and a lot of people got pissed off at it. Um, and, and probably rightfully so. But you know, why, why not look at what went right? And do more of that and also what went wrong and do, tried to do less of that and maybe set some, some ground rules for use of these, these contractors in, in future conflicts, you know?

Morgan Lerette: [00:21:00] So I’ll, I’ll tell you exactly why. So the military and private military contractors have had over 20 years to stop hiring pmcs and start hiring the people to protect diplomats, right?

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: it has been a 20 year time span. You could probably get two or three people through the pipeline that you would actually be able to train to do these jobs, these government agencies have decided consciously not to.

Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

Morgan Lerette: you have Blackwater in Iraq oh four. Then you have the 13 hour guys in Libya. You have contractors in Syria, Ukraine. They got, they got contractors over in Gaza right now that are, that are restricting Gaza’s from getting into, or Palestinians getting into Gaza and their US military contractors.

And, and the truth is, that. Using contractors is a pretty natural thing, right? When you go to Walmart, they have contractors over Christmas because they, they have an [00:22:00] influx of need for

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: check people out, and then after Christmas you get rid of them because you don’t need ’em anymore. We never got to the get rid of them part. And the reason is when a contractor dies overseas or gets hurt. Just a contractor. But when you have a soldier over there and they die and they get hurt, that is going to be in, in the national news media for weeks.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: using private military contractors allows the political class and all of the agencies that use them to say, we don’t have boots on the ground. Oh yeah, by the way, we got these contractors, but we don’t have boots on the ground. And that’s why you’re seeing. Uh, almost an explosion of, of this industry. We had private military contractors moving kids from the US Mexico border into the United States. We had private military contractors on ground in Haiti, moving migrants to Guantanamo Bay and then into the United States. The Gaza thing, the problem is, is that there’s no legal. [00:23:00] There, there’s no definitive legal coverage for private military contractors, and I think that that is an, an absolute value if I’m a politician. ’cause then I can kind of say, oh, it wasn’t the State Department. It was Blackwater Nier Square. That wasn’t, that wasn’t the State Department.

That was that bad Blackwater or Triple Canopy or MVM or you know, Southwest Keys or any of these other places that lost 325,000 migrant children. It allows them to say that wasn’t. DHS or HHS that was these terrible contractors. So there’s, there’s absolutely a reason why they haven’t done that. A a r um, kind of shocking, kind of sad.

But at the end of the day, like money talks.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and the way you explained it kind of makes sense. I mean, it doesn’t, it doesn’t, I mean, you, you still want to make the best use of these people. They, these people still are Americans, you know, for the. I [00:24:00] imagine for the most part, there’s probably some non-Americans that get hired by, by these companies as well, but

Morgan Lerette: it depends on the contract, but yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: yeah, sure.

Um, and I would imagine when, when you’re in Iraq, they looked at you as if you were Americans. I mean, you didn’t have, you know, the American flag on your uniform the way, you know, army Soldier might have, uh, the flag on, on their, their uniform, but. You’re still Americans and they still look at you as Americans, you’re still a representative somehow of, of America because just like the contractors that Walmart hires over, you know, the Christmas time, uh, like, I don’t know the difference between the person who’s there seasonally or the person who’s there full-time, who will be there in July too.

You know, I, I don’t know the difference. I just look at them as they’re, they’re just people here who are stocking the shelves and. Running the cash registers, um, or, you know, whatever it is that they do. Obviously you’re not wearing a uniform. So there is that [00:25:00] difference. You’re driving different vehicles, probably have different, you know, weapons and body armor and that type of thing.

Um, but at the, at the same time, you’re, you’re doing something along with Americans. You’re, you’re protecting American diplomats. You’re, you’re doing that type of work. So, I don’t know, to me, I, I would feel like. And I think we’re in a agreement here, it’s, it probably would be a good thing to do some sort of a, a r, but you know, to your point there, there’s no, there’s no reason for them to, uh, you know, in their mind anyways.

But, um, you know, maybe,

Morgan Lerette: we, are we really Americans? No. I mean,

Scott DeLuzio: yeah.

Morgan Lerette: we we’re absolutely Americans, but the problem is, um. A military contractor. I, I’ll, I’ll just give you an example. So we had a private military contractor that ended up dying in Iraq in April, 2005, and he did not get on any plane for 10 days to get sent home.

If you die as a US military member, you [00:26:00] are tier one cargo. You are

Scott DeLuzio: Yep.

Morgan Lerette: one off the ground. his poor wife had to call to a senator and say, my husband has been sitting in a morgue in Baghdad for 10 days, and he keeps getting bumped. And I can’t even have my husband come home. You don’t get to go to Arlington National Cemetery.

You don’t have, you know, the, the SGLI, the $450,000 payout if you die overseas, if you lose an arm, yeah, there’s some medical coverage, but it’s not the same as, you know, going and retiring as a military guy. So they’re, and, and they’ve been created by but. Contractors are not US soldiers by any stretch of the

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: and they’re completed. They’re, they’re, they’re treated completely differently.

Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.

Morgan Lerette: is that right or is it wrong? I don’t know. The guys that got hung in Fallujah, they got dragged through the streets. George W. Bush said, know, I’m not gonna be the next president that has a Somalia, so we’re gonna send the Marines in to Fallujah to take it over. the Marines ended up taking Fallujah Marines, ended up [00:27:00] dying, getting hurt, getting injured. To take Fallujah, and maybe they would’ve taken it anyway, but they had to take Fallujah because you have civilians on the battlefield and nobody knew what they were doing, where they were going, and they ended up getting ambushed.

So it’s, it, it’s, it’s, it’s just this massive gray area, both legally and morally, where contractors, yes, we’re Americans, but we’re not, you know, we’re not US soldiers,

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: just makes it. Don’t

Scott DeLuzio: it difficult.

Morgan Lerette: security. That’s what

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: your, your listeners. Don’t do it.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Well, and you know, to some, some of those things that you brought up, um, you know, it’s, it’s kind of eye-opening, right? Like if something did happen to you, you might be sitting in a morgue for days or, you know, weeks, uh, even. And, you know, you don’t get any fresher sitting in a morgue, you know, so, um.

You, you know, that that’s, that’s a shame. And I, you know, I, I make that joke and I know we, we kinda [00:28:00] all get the dark humor that we, we, uh, kind of joke around about. But, you know, thinking about that, that person’s family like that, that’s awful. You know, um, you, you wanna be able to bury that person and, you know, grieve and have that, that time instead of like having to call senators and.

Congressman trying to figure out where, where the, the body is and you know how to, how to get ’em back home. That like, that’s ridiculous. But, um, you know, talking about the, the, the coordination between the military and the private contractors and, uh, the State Department and all these other departments that are out there, when.

It’s, it’s almost like, like the pre nine 11 days when like the FBI and the CIA and the all these other agencies, like they didn’t talk to each other. They just kind of did their own thing. And like, post nine 11, they’re like, oh, that’s probably a bad idea. We probably should talk to each other and share information a little bit more.

Um, again, I think we’ve had a, [00:29:00] another one of those moments where maybe it makes sense to share some information and, and pass that information along. Um, but. I, I, I think that’s, it’s just a, um, it’s eyeopening actually. Just, just hearing, you know, your side of the story and some of the things that, that go on over there.

Um, you know, it, it’s, you hear, you know, the sound bites in the news and you know, how much of that can you really believe these days? Um, you know, but when you hear from someone who is actually there, um, you know, kind of. Makes a little bit more sense of like why, why certain people have some problems with with private contractors and why they continue to be used.

Because politically it’s a better option, you know?

Morgan Lerette: it’s, it, it’s a great option.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: same time, I don’t know. Look, set the pmcs aside. Um, when you walked into the embassy, when I walked into the embassy in Baghdad, everybody had their own [00:30:00] little area, whether military, C-I-A-N-S-A-D-I-A, whatever you want to be. and then none of those guys would communicate.

So yeah, we all had the same radio frequencies, but it almost became a turf war, right, where everybody wanted to be able to take credit for anything that went good. And then if something went bad, nobody would raise their hand. And you

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: same thing with the military. Right. They had these big walled compounds, camp Liberty, camp Victory, all these things.

And then the people that were out at the, at the small joint security stations or the combat outposts, they, they were, they were completely distanced from those individuals. Now look, you can track those vehicles and where they’re going, but at the end of the day, you still didn’t have, even within the military, The structure to be able to say who’s doing what and when. Right. It’s, it, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a great way to lose wars. I mean, I think we’ve proven that over the last, uh, Iraq and Afghanistan

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: 20 something years.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. We’ve. I’ve [00:31:00] certainly gotten good at that. Um, unfortunately, um, you know, and, and it,

Morgan Lerette: Uh.

Scott DeLuzio: hurts to say, but you know, it’s true. Um, you know, we went over there thinking that this is gonna be a slam dunk, and then decades later we’re still like, scratching our head like, what, what went wrong? You know?

Um, which makes me kinda wonder like, were those ars actually being done on the military side of things like. Obviously we weren’t doing everything right, otherwise, we would’ve been done with that war a long time ago. Um, we had some improvements that, that could have been made along the way. And you know what those were?

I don’t know. Um, you know, but they, they certainly, um, I mean the war certainly ended not the way we wanted it to. Um, especially those of us who were over there, you know.

Morgan Lerette: you called it a rip toe, and I don’t remember what it stands for, but it’s, uh, like transfer of authority was the toe apart and the unit that you always took over for, did everything [00:32:00] wrong. And then you were gonna come in and do everything right.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: as you were going out, somebody would come in and be like, well, why’d you do it this way?

And like by then, you’re, you’re a year in and you’re like, I’m exhausted. I don’t even care. Like, I’m

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: you on, on why I did things the way we did. And then like at Cop Cash, when I was there as an Army Intelligence officer, uh, one brigade commander. that he was going to do everything to build schools and parks and community stuff.

And then the next guy comes in and says, well, I’m gonna use all my money to work on security, or I’m gonna work, so EE Even then it it, it became this territory thing where

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: they could do it better and there still wasn’t a strategy of like, what does victory look like? I mean, if you can define it, that would be awesome.

‘ cause

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,

Morgan Lerette: I’ve been waiting 20 years to hear it.

Scott DeLuzio: beats me. Uh, that, that’s something I never really had a clear, uh, vision of either. It, it was just, you know, for me as an E five going over to Afghanistan, it was, go do your job, follow your orders, you know, go on the [00:33:00] missions, go go on patrols, do, do what you’re supposed to do and, and come back. And hopefully everybody still has all their arms and legs and.

Still got a heartbeat, you know? You know, that’s kind of the kind of what we were doing, you know, and I don’t like, what was the grand scheme of things? What was the, the end game? I don’t know. I, I don’t know what victory would’ve looked like. Um, and that, that seems like a pretty big question to have. Like, like, like if, if someone who is there can’t.

Define it. Um, and I’m not even sure the top brass could define it. Like if we had some of the generals who were in charge over there, I don’t know that they could, I mean, they can come up with an answer for sure. Is it a good answer? Is it really What, what victory would’ve looked like? Who knows? But

Morgan Lerette: We made

Scott DeLuzio: um,

Morgan Lerette: We made a

Scott DeLuzio: yeah.

Morgan Lerette: progress this last year.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And, and as you were talking about the, uh, the different units, like, you know, after a year [00:34:00] another unit comes in and takes over and another unit a, a year later, and it keeps going, uh, in a, this vicious cycle. And it made me think about, you know, what, you know, what was the last war that we really like?

This had a decided victory, uh, in, in, you know, maybe like World War ii, maybe, I don’t know, like.

Morgan Lerette: ii. Yeah.

Scott DeLuzio: I, I’m, I’m guessing, um, you know, the Desert Storm probably, you know, we, we did some good stuff over there. I don’t,

Morgan Lerette: for the people that wear the hats.

Scott DeLuzio: I, I, you know, I, I’ll, I’m, I’m just, I’m being nice. All right. Um, but yeah, I mean, like World War ii, I would, I would definitely say like, that’s for sure hands down victory.

Um, but look at how we fought that war where we sent guys over there. Wherever over there was, whether it was specific or Europe or you know, whatever. Um, we sent them there and they were basically there until either they died or the war was over. There was no, no one year cycle, let’s come [00:35:00] home, you know, or you know, maybe they got wounded and they, they, they come home.

You know, that, that type of thing too. Um, but you go and you fight the war and that way, whatever that. General or that, you know, whoever that is in charge, charge of that battalion or, or whatever, whatever their goals are, that’s what they’re gonna go and do. And they’re gonna go accomplish that. And it’s not gonna be wishy-washy and change every year.

Uh, they, they’re just gonna go and accomplish that mission. And when that mission’s accomplished, okay, what else is left to do? Let’s go accomplish the next mission. And, and they’re just gonna keep. Sending guys in and taking over territory and, and, you know, whatever. And, and those guys want to get home, so they’re gonna go fight.

It’s not like they, they have a clear end date in sight. Like, you know, when you get, uh, deployed to I, Iraq or Afghanistan, usually you knew it was about a year later. That give or take, you know, you might get extended, you know, for, for a little bit. But it wasn’t like you’re gonna be there for five or six years.

You know, like, it, it, [00:36:00] you knew pretty soon you’re gonna be coming home. Um. And then another group is gonna come in and replace you. Um, I don’t know. Maybe that’s a better way to do, to do it. I’m not, I’m not saying I would enjoy that necessarily, but maybe that’s the way it needs to be done, you know?

Morgan Lerette: Well, what I mean in World War ii what we did is we took land and we held it.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: We did not do that in Iraq. We did not do that in Afghanistan. We

Scott DeLuzio: I.

Morgan Lerette: little tiny bases within a geography, and then we tried to wage war from there. And then if you, if you get all the way down to that, like E three, E four level, right?

Because I was there once, it really is like, wake up, grab your gun, go do this.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: as a private military contractor was almost exactly the same. Like, if you would’ve told me how, if you would’ve said, oh, how does this fit into the war? I’d be like, Hey, we got that guy to the Ministry of Interior and back, and he didn’t die, and then we got to go swim and drink beer at the pool and, and make asses of ourselves.

Scott DeLuzio: Right.[00:37:00]

Morgan Lerette: it, I mean, there’s, we could probably talk about this for the next, you know, eight or nine years and, and still not get an answer out of it. But

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: definitely not doing it right.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. That, that’s for sure. And, uh, you know, I, I think that’s, it’s a shame really, you know, with all the, the money and lives and resources and everything that we threw into this over, over the last. You know, however many years now, it’s just crazy that you know, it, it didn’t turn out better, you know, with, you know, being like the most powerful country, the power most powerful military, we couldn’t, we couldn’t affect really any change.

I mean, we did for a period of time. Then it all kind of went to shit. So, you know, it is what it is, um, at, at this point. But, you know, when, when you were transitioning, you kind of flip flopped back and forth between military and non-military. Um, any issues for you as far as transitioning? I mean, the, the, the [00:38:00] roles were, were similar enough, I would imagine it might have been, you know, easy enough for you to, to transition.

But were there any issues with you, uh, in that transition period?

Morgan Lerette: You know, I, every time I transitioned, it was always looking for the next best option, right? Like and, and I, I think. lot of the times veterans kind of get stuck around what was my job in the military and what is my job now?

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: for me, dude, when I got done with basic training in a ITI started working at Sam’s Club when I was gonna college, I. Like, who cares? You’re at least I’m doing something. I’m making some money. when I got activated, uh, I got done. I was going back to college and then got activated again for, I don’t know, like four months. So do I transitioned eight or nine different times now, the hardest transition that I had was Blackwater by far, because there is no veterans resources for Blackwater guide.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: this was oh five, right? [00:39:00] PTSD hadn’t even hit the vernacular of, of what was going on with, uh, people coming back from the wars. So, um, that was, that was exceptionally difficult. And the only thing that it did is make me want to keep going back. All my friends were in Iraq. I feel comfortable in Iraq. I have my little house in Iraq, even though it’s just a bed and a TV and you know, it a, a pillow. Um, but. Everything drew me back to that until finally I was like, okay, now it’s, now it’s big boy time. What do I wanna do with my life? And then that’s where the college degree came in. So any veteran that’s having problems, just do the next best action and then sooner or later you’ll look back and say, holy crap, that worked out

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: justice degree.

I don’t use it at all. I know, shocker. You guys are like, holy cow, this guy, this guy isn’t using his criminal justice degree. Um, but that degree got me to become an army officer. And then when I started meeting the Army officer, which is the exact opposite of the enlisted corps here, I’ll give you an example. The enlisted [00:40:00] people are like, do it that way. ’cause that’s how I was taught. And it sucks and you have to suck too. Officer Corps is like, Hey, come on over here, man. I’ll, I’ll help you out. I’ll show you what to do. I’ll like, like they help each other.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: ended up meeting a guy. That was like, Hey, what are you gonna do when you get out?

And I said, I’m gonna go get a sociology master’s in social work. And he is like, what? What the hell’s wrong with you? You should be going to Harvard or Tufts or U Chicago or any of these fancy schools that I didn’t even know existed. And I took the right advice at the right time. I. So that’s why, how I got to Tufts University.

And then when I got to Tufts, I got my business degree instead of getting an international security studies degree. And then the business degree translated to my first job, which got me my next. Um, so I know it’s difficult and it’s really hard for people to sit there and say, the other side is over there, how do I get there?

And the truth is, it’s just one step at a time, The richest people I know are plumbers and do concrete and like they own these [00:41:00] small little companies.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: And yeah, you’re gonna have to go out there and you’re gonna have to snake a drain and a turd might get in your mouth. That happens. But if you’re running your own plumbing company in five years and you’re making $200,000 a year, that turd doesn’t taste so bad.

Scott DeLuzio: I like how you put that. That’s it. You, yeah. You might be doing literally some shitty work. Right. But, um. But again, to your point, you might be doing stuff that’s actually really, uh, lucrative and it might not be the, um, the sexiest position. It might not have the, the fancy title in a corner office. The things that I think, like when we were growing up like that was what success looked like, right?

But like these days. I mean, yeah, sure. If you, if you have that, that, nothing wrong with that. I’m not knocking that. But, um, you know, I, I know there’s a plumber who lives in our [00:42:00] neighborhood and he’s like, I have more work coming in than I can handle. I, I can’t do, I’m turning away jobs because I just have so much work and he’s, he’s bringing in tons of money and, um, you know, at this point probably needs to hire people to.

Grow his business and, and do bigger and better things. Right? But, you know, I don’t know exactly what he wants to do with his business, but, but still, to your point, um, there, there’s a lot of options out there. And so, um, doing that next best thing, um, like take, take stock, take inventory, do it a a r of yourself, of your life at this point, and say you like, all right, what’s going good?

Okay. These things are going good for me. Great. What’s going bad? What can I improve? Um, okay, now how do I improve those? What’s, what’s that next best thing? Uh, maybe it’s a career, maybe it’s a, you need a education. Maybe you need to, uh, go to college. You might not need to go to [00:43:00] college. Maybe you need to go to get some sort of other training or certificate or, uh, or whatever the case may be.

But to your point, you can use that. GI Bill for, uh, a lot of training. And some people don’t realize that, that the type of things that you can use it for, they sometimes think it’s just for college. Um, I had a guy on the podcast a while ago. He, he became a yoga instructor, uh, by using his GI bill, you know, and it’s like people don’t think of that, but you could, and, and so like, why not?

You know, get. Get your training in, you know, being a plumber or HVAC or, you know, whatever the, uh, industry is that you’re interested in, go do that thing and get, get some time in there, there, and then, you know, maybe it’s going back to school and, and getting your business degree and then starting a business and doing that, and then hiring people and, and growing it from there and, and you become this plumbing mogul or something.

I dunno.

Morgan Lerette: The Roto-Rooter [00:44:00] guy,

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: know, I’ll tell you what sucks. What sucks is taking accounting classes and finance classes and all these business classes. Um, but I’ll also tell you that the first time I took an accounting and finance class, was able to do my taxes by myself and I got so much money back. and, and it’s the same thing. Look, you don’t have to. you can go our generation, right? If you’ve got a college degree and you are our parents’ generation, they would line up and, and people were hiring you.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: not how it works anymore, right? With the soft sciences, psychol, they, you, we don’t need a bunch of more psychology majors.

I hate, I hate to be a butthole, but at the end of the day, sociology majors are not, they’re going to work at Home Depot and I’ve seen it happen.

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: it’s harder to go into engineering and business and all these things, but what it does is it gives you industry experience.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: So if you’ve been an infantry guy or you drive a tank, people don’t need infantry guys and people that drive a tank.

But what they do need is people that understand [00:45:00] accounting and finance and engineering, and it sucks to take those classes. I know I’ve taken ’em, and, but at the end of the day, that’s what’s gonna get you ahead of the, of your peers because not only do you have your leadership experience, your military experience, you’re a little bit older. Oh, and you have your accounting degree or your finance degree, that’s where your sweet spot is, right.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah, I have an accounting degree, which I, other than doing my own taxes, I don’t use anymore either. And so I, yes, I can attest to the fact that yes, taking the accounting classes does suck. Um, but it, to your point also, it, it did provide me a lot of, uh, other benefits that. I was able to take and then use in when I started my own business.

And, um, yeah, sure. I understood the, the financial side of things. Um, I, I had a business where I, I set it up that I really couldn’t. Lose money unless I was stupid on, you know, certain [00:46:00] expenses, but like, I really didn’t have to spend money until I, uh, made money. And so that was a nice thing, you know? And so, um, it, it, it made it so that the revenue side was always higher than the expense side, and that’s just like a basic, simple accounting piece of the puzzle there.

But like, if you can figure out a way to do that and, and it’s. You’re always getting the money in first before you’re spending it, and make sure that you’re spending less than what you’re getting in. You’re never gonna lose money. Um, you know, and so it’s, it’s, you know, just a simple example, but it, you know, it, it’s something that sometimes I don’t think people really think of that they, they just say, oh yeah, cool.

I got this great, you know, this great job. It’s gonna pay me X amount of money and, uh, I gotta go buy, you know. Twice that amount of money of supplies in order to do that job well. That job is a shitty job. You shouldn’t be doing that one,

Morgan Lerette: Right. Well that’s funny ’cause people ask me, uh, oh, I’m thinking about going [00:47:00] overseas. And they told me that I would have to buy my own gear and my own weapons. And I was like, that is not the company that you wanna work for,

Scott DeLuzio: right?

Morgan Lerette: that is a company that is gonna hang you out to dry. So it’s, I mean, it’s very similar in, in the PMC world.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: and I geeking, geeking out about, uh, accounting and stuff. Everybody’s like, oh man, may as well just take my May as well just take an accounting class now.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right.

Morgan Lerette: if you take an accounting class and you decide to be a plumber, then you can do the accounting for your own. You don’t have to pay somebody for it.

Like there, there’s just a lot of benefits for putting the suck up front.

Scott DeLuzio: Well, and and to your point of what you were saying before that the, the business degree or the engineering degree or, or things like that, those are things that will help you. In other areas. So like a business degree, for example, I don’t care what company you work for, it’s a business. And so that business is going to need people who understand business.

Um, because I don’t care if it’s a nonprofit, if it’s a [00:48:00] plumbing company, if it’s an accounting, a CP, a firm, or a, you know, a painting, uh, company or whatever. I don’t care. They all need people who understand business, people who understand the financial side, the people who understand the marketing side, the management side, the all of the, the pieces of business that, that go into it.

And so if you have a business degree, you’re going to be marketable to almost any business out there, uh, because they’re gonna need people like you who understand the issues that they’re going through. Um, you know, engineering, you know, if you wanna sell something. That you’re producing, you probably need, uh, some pretty good engineers to figure out how to produce this thing and how to do it effectively, how to make it better, you know, how to, how to do it cost effectively.

And you know, tho those are, are important things. So, yeah, uh, going back to that education piece, I think is, is huge. Um, you know, because there’s, you know, there you can [00:49:00] learn how to be a plumber. I’m just using that as an example. But if you don’t know how to run a plumbing business, you’re not gonna be very sec.

Success, uh, successful. I’m not even successful at saying that word at, at running your own business if you don’t understand that. Now, some people may just have a, a knack for it, and then maybe they don’t feel like they need the degree. Fine, great. But you know, it, it, I don’t think it’ll hurt. You know, either way.

But, um, man, this, this conversation has gone kind of all over the place. We’ve gone from private contracting, we’ve gone to military, we’ve gone to education, and we kind of, I kind of harped on it a little bit because I think it’s important for people, uh, transitioning to realize that, you know, maybe their military career.

Well as, as good as it is, I’m not putting it down or knocking it, it may not just be enough for whatever that next step is. Maybe you do need to look into some additional education, whether it’s college or trade school or, or whatever it is. Um, [00:50:00] and that, that’s fine. And, and when you do that, when you do that little bit of suck up front, it, it, that’s something you can take with you for the rest of your career, the rest of your life and, you know, why not get it outta the way early.

Right.

Morgan Lerette: Absolutely.

Scott DeLuzio: So, um, anything else that we didn’t, I mean, we touch on a lot of to topics here. Any, anything else that we missed?

Morgan Lerette: place.

Scott DeLuzio: know this, this was kind of like a, like a buffet line. We could just pick whatever we wanted to, to chat about. But, um, you know, anything else that we missed that you, uh, wanted to, to get across to the audience?

Morgan Lerette: No, I mean, look at, at the end of the day, I, I became a private military contractor because it fell under my lap and it was the next logical step and I made a bunch of money at it. And I, I get these questions all the time, um, on social media. I. How do I become a private military contractor? And the truth is. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll give you my best advice. One, set a goal, right? Whether that is I want to [00:51:00] have a hundred thousand dollars in my bank after I pay my taxes. Pay your taxes. Believe me, I’ve seen, oh dude, it turns out so bad if you don’t.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: or, Hey, I want to have enough money to finish my college degree, or I want to pay off my house.

What? Whatever that is, set that goal before you do it, then what that allows you to do is say, do I want to keep doing this job, or do I need to keep doing this job? I’ll tell you my story. I went over there for six months, came home, bought a Land Rover, blew all my money, and then within a month, within literally 33 days, blew all what? I was there for six months, so I had $90,000 gone.

Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.

Morgan Lerette: Gone. And then I had to go on my next contract. And that’s what a lot of people get stuck into that cycle.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: like, oh, I have to get my next contract because I bought a $8 million house instead of buying a $450,000 house. Or, oh, I really wanted that new Harley Davidson.

And then you’re back overseas being like, ah, did I really want that Harley Davidson when mortars are getting ready to hit me?

Scott DeLuzio: Right.

Morgan Lerette: [00:52:00] So if you’re gonna go into this career field and absolutely reach out, I’m happy to talk to you. Um, but set a goal and then that just gives you that, that freedom to say, do I want to keep doing this? Or do I have to keep doing this? And once you get into that want period, it is so much better. And I’ve met guys that are still doing it ‘ cause they want to. Uh, I’ve also met guys that are doing it because they owe the IRS $350,000. So just, it, it, it is not, I, I never looked at it as a long-term career path.

Same thing with the military. I always looked at it as like a stepping stone.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

Morgan Lerette: Um, but is, it is a wild world out there. It’s not as wild as it was, you know, oh 4, 0 5. But the contracts keep getting bigger and crazier. The Gaza, remember the Gaza, um, floating dock that

Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Lerette: military contractors?

’cause they didn’t wanna poke boots on ground. Remember? That was the big thing. No boots on ground.

Scott DeLuzio: That’s right.

Morgan Lerette: Gaza, Syria, the Ukrainian war, they’re moving closer and closer. You’ll see it on X. You see these guys that are out there speaking perfect [00:53:00] English on the front lines of the Ukrainian War. Those are private military contractors.

So I, if anybody. W we need to take a look at it. And senators, congressmen, all those people need to take a look at this and say, is this how we want to wage war going forward? that’s where we’re going. And it’s only gonna take a few private military contractors to get killed in Syria, Ukraine, or something.

And it drags us into a war. And that’s, that’s my biggest concern, is civilians in the battlefield and then them taking one step too far, is that gonna drag us into the next war? And I. I hope not, but man, we just, we, we can’t help ourselves.

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, it’s, I mean, we, we seem like we’re always looking for that next war. Um, unfortunately. And, um, you know, that’s something, you know, as you know, the next generation gets older. Like, I, I don’t want my kids to have to go to war, you know, I, if they choose to join the military, fine that, that’s on, on them, but I don’t, I don’t want it to be like a, [00:54:00] a have to a Vietnam draft era kind of thing.

Um, so let’s. Let’s try to, you know, keep, be cool. Uh, you know,

Morgan Lerette: Just be cool.

Scott DeLuzio: just be cool, be cool, you know, don’t, don’t step out outta your lane and, and things will be okay. Um, but yeah, this, this has been a, a great conversation. I, I think, you know, like I said, we, we did cover a lot of bases here, but, um, I, I think there, it’s an interesting topic, um, talking about the, the contracting and um, uh, the things that.

Uh, may or may not have gone, gone well over there. You know, the things that, that, um, you know, people have talked about and, and that you’ve seen firsthand. Um, again, the book is Guns, girls, and Greed, and I will, I will put a link to the book in the show notes for the listeners so they can grab a copy of it so they can, you know, see that firsthand account of, you know, what, what went on, uh, you know, on, on the ground there.

So.

Morgan Lerette: caveat [00:55:00] that it is a PG 16 book. Your fourth grader should not be doing a book report on this book.

Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

Morgan Lerette: It is raw, it is unfiltered. It is exactly what war is at the ground level. Um, I only mentioned that because my buddy loaned it out to his friend and her fourth grade son. I hold of it and started doing a book report and she had to go talk to the principal about, oh yeah, Morgan’s talking about shooting cars and, and then Mor yeah, like, don’t, please God, don’t give it to your kids. But if you get into dark humor and you wanna know what it feels like to be that person on the ground in Iraq, like this is the book for you.

Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Excellent. Yes. Don’t give it to your kids. Um, yeah, that just use your head as, as a parent, like, don’t, like, I mean, just from the title. I probably wouldn’t, you know,

Morgan Lerette: You

Scott DeLuzio: but you never know. I mean, yes, I’m judging a book by its cover, but I. You know, um, but anyways, yeah, don’t do that. Um, read it yourself first before you give it to your kids and make your own judgment.

I’m not gonna tell [00:56:00] you what to do. You’re a grownup. You can, you can live your own life. But, um, uh, yeah. So again, I’ll have a link to the book in the show notes, anywhere else, uh, that, that people can, uh, check you out or find out any more information.

Morgan Lerette: If you want to see, you know, me, shake my butt. I’m on TikTok at Blackwater, dude and the number one at Blackwater, dude. One. I’m also on Instagram and X with the same handle at Blackwater, dude one. Um, so just

Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Excellent,

Morgan Lerette: reach out if I can help you. Just reach out.

Scott DeLuzio: excellent. And I will, I’ll put those links in the show notes as well so people can watch you shaking it for whatever reason. If they,

Morgan Lerette: would, you would pay $10. I’m just saying.

Scott DeLuzio: I wouldn’t, but someone might. I don’t know. I Thanks so much, Morgan.

Morgan Lerette: Take it easy.

​[00:57:00]