[00:00:00] Pat McNamara: I remembered who I am. You know, I remembered it. Wow. I remembered it. And that’s when I said to myself, I will not be defeated. I will not be defeated. I’m not buried. I’m not, I’m planted. 

[00:00:15] Narrator: Welcome to the Tango Tango podcast. Real raw and unfiltered conversations with veterans and those who support them, tune in, be inspired, and walk away stronger.

[00:00:33] Lloyd Knight: Welcome to the Tango Tango podcast. I’m your host, Lloyd Knight. This podcast is brought to us by our friends at Supply Chain Now I’m super excited for today’s episode. I’ve been following Mac on social media for many years. I’m, I’m a huge fan. Just as a quick introduction, and I’ve got this, this list here, a, uh, Mac is a, uh, Delta Force veteran, a small business owner.

[00:00:59] Lloyd Knight: A fitness guru, basic dude stuff creator, which I flip and love basic dude stuff. A social media master kid show host, which we’re gonna be talking about now, which just looks totally cool. Owner of some really cool toys, including A GTO goat, the, uh, all around ultimate badass King of Dad jokes, which I think are hilarious.

[00:01:26] Lloyd Knight: And then husband of Rebecca. So the, uh, welcome to the, uh, tango, tango, Mac. Hey, thanks Lloyd. Thanks for having me. Pleasure to be here. And, and we’re gonna go a little bit different. We’re not gonna dig into the whole veteran thing yet. And, and, and, and talk about your background. Let’s talk about Rebecca. 

[00:01:45] Pat McNamara: Oh my God.

[00:01:46] Pat McNamara: Because I, I, 

[00:01:48] Lloyd Knight: I know Rebecca came into your life at, at a great opportunity. I’ve heard the story and, and you credit her for kind of giving you some. Really needed guidance in your life. 

[00:02:00] Pat McNamara: Yeah. PR she pretty much gave me like a second lease on life, you know, when I met her 2013 remit. Yeah. Um, I was in a, I was in a pretty bad place and I was, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t get into another long-term relationship again, just because the previous one was really bad.

[00:02:21] Pat McNamara: And anyway, she is, um, yeah, she’s an extraordinary human being. She’s, um, I like to tell people she’s one of the best all around human beings that I’ve ever met. I. We met, um, briefly in probably 2011. I went to pick up my then wife who was under the influence at her, at Rebecca’s, uh, hair salon. And we chatted briefly, you know, this and that.

[00:02:46] Pat McNamara: Her boyfriend took a course from me. And, and, um, so we brought, uh, we chatted briefly, five minutes or so, and then I re-met her a year and a half ago. We were both single and, uh, it didn’t take long, man. I mean, man, sh we had, we were, uh, you know, it’s all this, the corny stuff you always hear, you know, soulmates and all this stuff, you know, but, uh, I never, I never knew and when, how old I was.

[00:03:12] Pat McNamara: I think I was 48 years old when I met. When I met Rebecca, I had never known true love. I. Until I met her. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I thought I had, but never, I mean, it was a whole new ball of wax. We have an age difference. Most people know this. You know, it’s an age difference. She’s 25 years age difference. Wow.

[00:03:35] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I’m a guy, so therefore I’m five minutes outta high school. Uh, perpetuate perpetually. She’s, she’s, she’s the responsible adult in my life. She’s my executive assistant, and we are, we’re, we’re tight. We’re, we are, we are best of buds. I mean, I think first and foremost, we’re best of buds.

[00:03:57] Pat McNamara: You know, like, not, she is my best friend. We’re really like buddies, you know, where we like to do everything together. We hang out. She’s, if we’re separated for a day, for whatever reason, I miss her. Yeah. 

[00:04:11] Lloyd Knight: Well, well, congrats. That’s, I could go on and on. 

[00:04:14] Pat McNamara: I mean, I could talk about her for, I could just, I could go and go.

[00:04:18] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, that, that’s really cool. The, the God gave me a, a, a, a second lease too. I, I was married for th almost 34 years and Wow. Wife passed, passed away. Bummer. And then he. He granted me a second woman who is my friend and Nice. And who puts up with me as well. Nice. And yeah, so, so I’m totally blessed. Right on.

[00:04:39] Lloyd Knight: So, yeah, I, I know that’s so important to you. I’ve, I’ve seen her, uh, mentioned multiple times and she’s on all your basic dude stuff mm-hmm. For most of them. So, so the, uh, it’s a very cool story and I wanted to get into that. The, uh. First and foremost. So now let’s take it back a little bit. A um, where are you originally from?

[00:04:58] Pat McNamara: Uh, originally from Connecticut. So grew up there. Okay. And, you know, most of my family, that’s where they’re from, either between Connecticut and Michigan, those two states. But most of my family is from Connecticut and several of them still live there. But I left there in 1983 when I joined the, uh, when I joined the Army.

[00:05:16] Lloyd Knight: So were you a big outdoorsman 

[00:05:17] Pat McNamara: hiker 

[00:05:18] Lloyd Knight: before 

[00:05:18] Pat McNamara: you joined the Army? Yeah, I think I was always drawn to the outdoors. I was a, a very curious kid, always into exploring and, you know, looking at bugs and birds. I, I just, uh, I, I’ve been a avid bird watcher since I was 10 years old. Oh. I learned how to fly fish when I was about nine or 10 as well.

[00:05:37] Pat McNamara: I’ve always been big into the outdoors. Uh, grew up in an area that had plenty of woods around us. So we were always, my friends and I were always in the woods. We had hiking trails and such trails that we forged ourselves, you know, kind of. Burnt them into the landscape ourselves. So yes, absolutely. 

[00:05:56] Lloyd Knight: So what kind of high school student were you?

[00:05:58] Pat McNamara: Oh, um, my first two years in high school I did not do well. I struggled a, DD and, but back then, you know, you didn’t take pills for it and such. You, uh, did this thing called exercise and you did this thing called get outside. You know, you did this thing called, create a bunch of hobbies for yourselves. But, um, a funny story there.

[00:06:23] Pat McNamara: I started wrestling in my, uh. Freshman year of high school and I sucked. I sucked my first two years, but I started getting really good 11th and 12th grade and then a bunch of things happen all at once. You know, you get your driver’s license and I had been working under the table just around the neighborhood and, and then I started getting a couple part-time jobs after school.

[00:06:45] Pat McNamara: And insurance is expensive. My parents didn’t, you know, parents don’t pay your insurance and stuff like that for you either. You wanna drive, go get insurance, you wanna drive, go get a car, you know, those kind of things. Yeah. But all state. I remember this had a deal. He said, if you were a honor grad student, your insurance would be cut 50%.

[00:07:10] Pat McNamara: So I was motivated. Wow. Yeah. Motivated by money. And I, I studied, yeah, I applied myself. Huh. Got on the honor roll, so, yep. So I ended up being a pretty good high school student my 11th and 12th year. 

[00:07:22] Lloyd Knight: That, that’s awesome. What, what kind of car were you driving? 

[00:07:24] Pat McNamara: I, uh, my, the first car I ever bought, I bought it when I was 15, uh, before I had a driver’s license.

[00:07:29] Pat McNamara: And it was a 1954 Chevy Bel Air with a three speed on the Wow. Three on the tree. Yep. Straight 6, 2 35. And I tinkered with it and got it painted, made it look, made it look sharp, and yeah, it was kind of the. 

[00:07:45] Lloyd Knight: You, you were much cooler than me. I was sporting a 1982 yellow Chevy Love pick up a, uh, truck. 

[00:07:52] Pat McNamara: Yeah.

[00:07:52] Pat McNamara: Not as cool. That car’s not as cool. Right, right, right. Yep. 

[00:07:56] Lloyd Knight: Not as cool. Yeah. I, I wrestled too. Uh, wrestling really laid a foundation for me. The, uh, you have nobody to blame when you’re counting the lights on your back. Right. And, and you’ll ultimately get tired of, of being pinned. So you either work your butt off mm-hmm.

[00:08:13] Lloyd Knight: And, and, and then you learn or, or you quit. And they, uh, and, and, and I ended up a, uh, wrestling for three years. And I can’t say I was super good. I. But I was good enough or I was doing more pinning than getting pinned. Right 

[00:08:26] Pat McNamara: on. That’s what it’s about right there. I same once I won my first match, I wanted more of that, that feel, that feeling of being victorious.

[00:08:36] Pat McNamara: And it was a new sensation to me, uh, being victorious in something. And so you become self-governed, you know, you know, you’re part of a team, but if you wanna represent the team well, you’ve gotta win matches. If you wanna win matches, you’ve gotta be self-governed. You’ve gotta put in the extra road miles and the extra training and the extra weight room and you can’t just practice, you know, during team practice.

[00:08:59] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. Yeah. It takes, it, it’s a 24 7 commitment almost to get good. Did you have a break between high school or did, uh, and the army or did you join right away? Uh, I had a, uh, one and a half 

[00:09:11] Pat McNamara: month break. Okay. And why the army? Uh, I went to, um. I think because of wrestling and being, you know, liking the teamwork, the comradery, the discipline, I thought, man, I really wanna join the military.

[00:09:26] Pat McNamara: My dad was pushing me to, um, become an officer. You know, he really wanted me to go to an academy at West Point Air Force Academy, whatever it was. And thankfully I wasn’t blessed with the aptitude for those kind of, you know, institutions. So I, uh, I went to recruiter ro. You know, and talk to all the recruiters, you know, they’re, and know how they are.

[00:09:49] Pat McNamara: They’re like, they’re like W wolves circling a carcass. You know? And the Army had the best answer for me at the time. ’cause I asked them all the same question. It was just dumb kid questions. 17-year-old. Yeah. Cocky kid. What’s the hardest thing I could do in the Air Force, in the Marine Corps? In the navy, in the Army.

[00:10:06] Pat McNamara: And the Army had the best answer. ’cause they had, uh, two tracks like, um, fast tracks to badassery. Uh, they had army rangers or special forces at the pro at the. Time Special Forces was taking people off of the street. It was as a baby program. 18 X-ray. Yeah. So in that, so once you finished 13 weeks of infantry basic, a IT went to jump school and you would start a special forces course.

[00:10:36] Pat McNamara: So that’s why I, I had no druthers when way and I had no allegiance or loyalty to a certain branch of service. I didn’t care. 

[00:10:44] Lloyd Knight: And what year was that? 

[00:10:45] Pat McNamara: 19, uh, I enlisted delayed entry in 1982 when I was 17 and went in as soon as I graduated high school in 1983. 

[00:10:54] Lloyd Knight: Okay, great. Talk us through the Q course. ’cause we have a lot of folks that listen and, and watch this podcast that, that aren’t veterans or haven’t been around the military.

[00:11:02] Lloyd Knight: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:03] Pat McNamara: A little bit, run a little differently then than it is now. When I reported to Fort Bragg, we, um, we started, and I, I reported on my 19th birthday. That’s when I got, that’s when I got to Fort Bragg, March 4th, 1984. And they had this thing called pre-phase initially, which was nothing more than trim the fat.

[00:11:28] Pat McNamara: It was just a three week smoke fest. You were living in, uh, you know, old World War II Wooden barracks. Uh, you weren’t getting a lot of sleep. You weren’t getting a lot of food. You were just, you were going going go a lot of sh like shit details and just a lot of smoke fest. It was nothing more than, let’s see who wants to be here.

[00:11:48] Pat McNamara: Do you really wanna be here or do you just wanna wear a Green Beret? You know, that kind of thing. So, I mean, you PT probably three times a day. Probably, you know, and, and there was no rhyme or reason to it. It was, it was, you know, grass drills and, and sprint two miles as fast as you can and just pushups until your, you felt like your shoulders were gonna explode.

[00:12:10] Pat McNamara: There was no rhyme or reason to it. It was just a smoke. It was just a, just smoke the living crap out of you. When I started, what was called, uh, and I, it still is called first phase, that was outta Camp McCall. And Camp McCall was unique in that, that time it was just tar paper shacks. It was very, it was very Spartan.

[00:12:30] Pat McNamara: You know, they have a barracks there now and stuff, and buildings. It was very spartan. And first phase is where you learn the, uh, basic skills. So you know, all your rope stuff, your fries, your repelling, your fast rope, uh, your survival, your land nav, your patrolling, all those things. And in between. Getting instruction on all those things.

[00:12:54] Pat McNamara: You were still getting smoked, you know, just smoke, smoke ruck marches. That was mainly it. Get that ruck on at 4:00 AM follow the liter down freaking dirt roads and the pace. I remember the pace going. Wow. ’cause I was a young scout. But there’s a real art form to rucking. So I was one of maybe five of me, SF Babies kids.

[00:13:19] Pat McNamara: The experienced guys, guys came from Ranger Battalion 82nd Airborne Division. Those things, they know how to ruck, you know, the staff sergeants, the guys who were old, you know, 25 years old, you know what I mean? They were old. They could, they could rock, you know, they could move out. So that alone, I was just blown away.

[00:13:38] Pat McNamara: There was so much to learn. You know, when you’re, what do you know when you’re 19, you’re dumber a brick with a hole in it. You don’t know anything. Yeah. So the SF course required a lot of, it was a thinking man’s game. You had to, you couldn’t just be a nug. It was very cerebral, a lot of study, and it was not easy for me.

[00:13:57] Pat McNamara: The first phase was not easy. As a matter of fact, I, I failed out of first phase and had to recycle the whole thing. All the first phase. And then once you finish first phase, you go into second phase, which is your, your job specialty. And in special forces you have 18 Bravo. 18 Delta 18. Echo 18 Charlie.

[00:14:16] Pat McNamara: Right. So you are a, uh, heavy weapons guy, engineer, medic, or weapons guy. And I went to 18 Bravo Weapons School, and that was eight weeks long where you’re learning all the world’s weapons. You know, you could, you could disa, you could disassemble and assemble these things in the dark. I don’t care what it was, you know, if it was a M two HB or a stent, you know, you knew all of the guns and you were able to shoot all of the guns, you know, the history behind them.

[00:14:44] Pat McNamara: You know, you had to take written tests on these things. Uh, you had, you had to know how to repair ’em, how to set head space and timing, all this stuff. And then in third phase, oh my God, man, that became, like, that’s when you learned like the gorilla warfare, unconventional warfare. And you had to, uh, you know, work with, and it’s a, in the Special forces course, a fictional gorilla outfit, you know, and here it’s, it’s Pineland and so it’s a, it’s a fictional country.

[00:15:12] Pat McNamara: I, I know about Pineland. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a fictional country. And an exercise is called Robin Sage. Yeah. Uh, and there, there are role players who’ve been playing for. I would, I don’t know. I have no idea. But I guarantee you there are role players who have played for 50 years. Wow. Yeah. I guarantee you there are people who, who started being a role player when they were a teenager and they’re still doing the same thing thing now.

[00:15:39] Pat McNamara: You know, however many times a year they run Robin Sage guarantee you those people are still out there. You know, they, they, and it’s, it’s kind of a neat thing for the community too, to be a member of Pineland, you know, a citizen of the country of Pineland. 

[00:15:54] Lloyd Knight: I read Tim Kennedy’s book, which I thought was a, a pretty dang good book.

[00:15:57] Lloyd Knight: And he talks about having it, getting a fresh uniform, get wet and roll around in the sand. Yeah. 

[00:16:03] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[00:16:03] Lloyd Knight: And, and um, I thought it was a pretty good depiction. One of the things that surprised me, um. Is getting to know Navy sills and green bras and, and the Special Forces community is, it’s more than just muscle and mite and how cerebral they are and how great of a memory you have to have.

[00:16:24] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. And, 

[00:16:25] Pat McNamara: and, and, 

[00:16:25] Lloyd Knight: yeah. 

[00:16:26] Pat McNamara: Yeah. The amount of stuff that you learn, not just when you’re going through a course, but over the span of career, of a career, I don’t know. I, I probably have the equivalent of two master’s degrees because everything from math, from all the math, from geometry to algebra to trigonometry, and then you have to know laws like Boyle’s Law, Dalton’s Law, Archimedes’ Principle.

[00:16:51] Pat McNamara: But you have, there’s just, there’s so much learning that goes into this stuff and you know, the leadership training and the writing skills and the writing courses, and it just goes on and on and on. The wheels on the bus go round and round and round, and you’re going if, especially if you wanna level up, which Special Forces gives you that opportunity to level up continuously.

[00:17:14] Pat McNamara: So you’re always looking for the next thing. What haven’t I done? What school don’t I have under my belt? So you are always. Faced with a new set of challenges, brand new set of challenges. 

[00:17:26] Lloyd Knight: So you, uh, you went through Airdrop school? Yep. Paratrooper School. Yep. The, uh, Fort Fort Benning. And the, uh, so how is that jumping out of an airplane for the first 

[00:17:35] Pat McNamara: time?

[00:17:35] Pat McNamara: Um, you know what though? I think, uh, when you’re first doing it, they’re all night jumps, right? Because your eyes are shut now. That’s what they said. Um, it wasn’t, it wasn’t horrible. It’s very nervous inside the. You’re very nervous ’cause you’re jammed in there with 60 other people and, and you’re a kid.

[00:17:53] Pat McNamara: ’cause most people go through jump school kids. 18. Oh yeah. 19. And, you know, you’re, you’re tethered off to a cable inside and, and the racket, you know, in there and the commands. ’cause the jump masters, they’re the, for jump school are very theatrical. And they’re yelling and screaming and, uh, when the doors open on that bird and the wind rushes in, you’re going, oh my God.

[00:18:17] Pat McNamara: And go, go, go, go. You know, and you’re just, they’re just pushing guys out. Pushing ’em out, pushing ’em out, pushing out. I was injured on my second jump. Oh. I was, what is referred to as a towed jumper. 

[00:18:30] Lloyd Knight: Oh, you would know. So I’m a load master, a retired load master. Right. 1 1 40 ones. Yep. So we, we train. For tow jumpers.

[00:18:39] Lloyd Knight: Yep. And it’s, uh, it’s about as dangerous as it gets. Yep. And there’s different levels of it, so Wow. Let’s take us through that 

[00:18:48] Pat McNamara: story. Yeah. So I have a five inch scar on, on this arm right here, because what probably my fault, right. Uh, I probably chuck that’s static line and, you know, had my arms flailing, but the static line went under my reserve and around my arm.

[00:19:03] Pat McNamara: I was like halfway in the stick and boom, I hit the end of that and I’m stuck on the outside of the airplane. I’m smashing into it. Jumpers are coming over me. Yeah. And, and it, thankfully it came loose. Right. You’re lucky, right? Because I mean, it’s the common people die. Oh, it was, it was very, very scary.

[00:19:23] Pat McNamara: And, and I had, that was my first. Injury, like this is a legit injury, not a broken yeah arm or a broken collarbone, but I am injured. I ended up with, uh, my bicep got pulled down into my forearm kind of toothpaste tube down broke ribs, uh, dislocated shoulder concussion, but. It’s kind of, I, I, I could, I, I like to find humor in some of my tragedy, which most of my tragedy I could find humor in, except for like, uh, like going through deep, dark depression.

[00:19:58] Pat McNamara: You know, I can’t find humor in that. But all my injuries, bad luck. I could find a lot of humor, especially the, the tow jumper thing when it came loose, my chute deployed. I’m under my chute and I just remember groaning, you know, very shocky at that point. ’cause the body takes over, you know, it’s trying to shut down and, and calm you down.

[00:20:19] Pat McNamara: Just groaning, moaning and groaning. And I hit the ground and I land on the same side, you know, broken rib side and I’m laying there and agonizing pain. And I’m just motionless and add insult to injury. Gust the wind comes. Woo. My shooting inflates and I’m getting drug across the drop zone. You know, like a sack of freaking turds.

[00:20:44] Pat McNamara: Just getting drug across. Yeah. The drop zone. And I hear one of the instructors on a bullhorn, you know, one of the black hats, and he’s yelling at me, you leg, you over there getting drug or release one of your cable loop type canopy release assemblies. Now leg release it now. You know? And I did that. I reached up with this arm and I popped that thing and shoot the fleet.

[00:21:06] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Now, because I. You’re 18 and you’ve been injured in a school, you think the the only thing that was on my mind is I’m in trouble. I messed something up. I damaged government property, you know, that kind of thing. So I packed my stuff up with one arm and it was very, very scary to me. ’cause there was no signal from my head to my arm.

[00:21:30] Pat McNamara: There was, and, and I remember like saying to myself, please move, please move. You know? And there was nothing. It wouldn’t. And so I got all my stuff in and I sat down and I’m very ashing and I’m puking. I threw up and I could see all the instructors, they’re looking around, well, they’re looking for me.

[00:21:48] Pat McNamara: ’cause they saw it, you know, they saw it happen. Uh, and a buddy of mine comes up and I got rope burns around my bdu, you know, and he, he says, bro, are you okay? I said, I’m not good. I’m not good. And he unbuttoned my shirt. And I’m looking at him and that’s when it real, when he pulled the shirt down and I saw like the skin was like translucent and there was no eye bump in my forearm.

[00:22:14] Pat McNamara: Um, that’s when I threw up again and then the black hats ran over and they were super professional and so they said, all right, we’re gonna get you outta here. Another add insult to injury, the medevac bird just left, right? Oh yeah. It was somebody with a broken femur. So I had to take a bus, one of the bluebird buses by myself all the way to Martin Army Hospital down dirt roads.

[00:22:40] Pat McNamara: It’s, it’s bumping around and you know, I’m like, ACEing sugar. I’m going, oh my. And I mean, I was, I was in absolute freaking agony. Third insult to injury, I get to Martin Army Hospital and it’s right after Grenada. So the hospital has a lot of. Combat jump injuries in it. Oh, you know, like real injuries combat, you know, like Yeah.

[00:23:03] Pat McNamara: Aircraft seizure. Yeah. I mean, uh, airfield seizure, you know, where they were jumping out four 50 feet. So it was, and they stick me in an open bay with, uh, there must have been 20 other patients in the open bay. And yeah. And I’m just in agony and thankfully the guy in the bed next to me was a master sergeant from first Ranger Battalion, and he says, toe jumper.

[00:23:26] Pat McNamara: Um, I said, yes, sergeant. And he gets on the horn and calls the nurse. He’s like, give this guy some drugs now. ’cause they hadn’t given anything. Wow. Holy cow. Yeah. So he, he took care of me. Yeah. Yeah. So they shot. So how long were you out for before you could continue training? Uh, that was, that happened in September, 1983 in, I graduated jump school in February.

[00:23:49] Pat McNamara: Alright, so couple months. Mm-hmm. A couple months in Martin Army. Wow. Yep. Yep. That’s true. And, and, and once again, the staff at there, at Jump School True Professionals. My third jump, they put me first in the door. Yeah. I was, they they were real cool about it, you know, ’cause they knew. Yeah. They put me first in the door and I remember the jump master grabbing my static line going and looking at me.

[00:24:14] Pat McNamara: I. Like, this is not getting the best of you this time. 

[00:24:18] Lloyd Knight: That’s, that’s amazing. Yeah. So I was a 1 41 load master. Yeah. The, I remember the, the first time in airdrop school getting trained on how to kick people out of the airplane. Right. The first time I had to open up the door and step out on the platform, I was like, what in the world am I doing?

[00:24:37] Lloyd Knight: And they, uh, that’s fun. That’s a good too. But I, I was like, feeling of 

[00:24:40] Pat McNamara: power, you know? It’s fun. Jump master school, you know 

[00:24:43] Lloyd Knight: it. Yeah. And ultimately I, I thrived in it. Yeah. So the, uh, it was, it was such a rush, but that first time was, first time was pretty shocking. Mm-hmm. But I, I loved going down to Benny and the Airdrop school.

[00:24:57] Lloyd Knight: Yep. Because it was pretty easy for us. We would just open up the doors and do racetracks. Mm-hmm. And, and then the, um, and then, you know, we would load up one after another. They would do five jumps in one day and. And then they, uh, watched the progression of, uh, between the jobs and then honestly the jump masters, as you said, they were so good.

[00:25:16] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[00:25:17] Lloyd Knight: And it was a, uh, it was such an honor to, to do that. 

[00:25:21] Pat McNamara: Very cool. 

[00:25:22] Lloyd Knight: So, uh, so you, uh, complete the Q course. So how long was the Q course? Oh, for me or for a normal person? 

[00:25:30] Pat McNamara: Uh, lemme see. March for you. I think March to November is how long I was there. Because the other thing too, as a private, you know, as a 18 x-ray, you know, as a baby yeah.

[00:25:44] Pat McNamara: You did not get priority. Like whenever you start phase two, for example, there was lag time here and there plus recycling first phase. So it took, it took a minute. And from there I went to, uh, first Special Forces group at Fort Lewis, Washington. 

[00:25:59] Lloyd Knight: At the height of the Cold War. 

[00:26:00] Pat McNamara: Yep. Height of the Cold War. 

[00:26:02] Lloyd Knight: So, so the, uh, so yeah, it’s a much different environment now.

[00:26:06] Lloyd Knight: I remember, you know, every training that we did, so I, I, I joined in 1987. Mm-hmm. And from 1987 until the wall fell. Everything we did was trained against US Soviet threat, right? 

[00:26:18] Pat McNamara: Yep. It was all Soviet. Soviet, Soviet, Soviet, yep. The great freaking propaganda machine. You know, and it’s, it’s so funny because I, I ended up landing a job during the Cold War spying on the Soviet army, and I went, they don’t look Soviet freaking super power to me.

[00:26:39] Pat McNamara: I mean, the, the troops very hardy. Yeah, very tough. They got nothing on us, bro. They’re like living a harder, they train hard. Yeah. I mean, they, they train real life conditions and they’re hardy. They don’t know any better, just the way they’re brought up. You know, most, most kids in, in like Russia probably had a, a handful of fist fights by the time they were five years old.

[00:27:00] Pat McNamara: Yeah. No, I mean, for real. They’re very, very hard. That was the only thing. But, uh, like their leadership, their corruption, their equipment was in a horrible state of disrepair. It was antiquated. It was, it was just a mess. But the, the soldiers. Very tough. 

[00:27:17] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. I think we, we saw that at the, uh, when the Russian Ukraine war started, they had the same stuff decades later going on.

[00:27:25] Lloyd Knight: Right. I, I remember, you know, all their tires of all their vehicles were dry rotted. 

[00:27:29] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[00:27:29] Lloyd Knight: And they, uh, yeah. And they, they, they, um, they had their, they definitely didn’t have the acquisition arm that the US 

[00:27:37] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[00:27:37] Lloyd Knight: Military had, so. Mm-hmm. Uh, let’s talk about, can you share like, like some, a memorable mission that you went on 

[00:27:45] Pat McNamara: in which part of my life?

[00:27:48] Pat McNamara: Or which, let, let’s 

[00:27:48] Lloyd Knight: start off with, let’s start off with an early one. 

[00:27:51] Pat McNamara: The, uh, so first group, no, no mission, you know, peacetime army. Yeah. You know, yeah. There not nothing going on. We just trained to beat the freaking Soviet Union. Yeah. And we did a lot of fit foreign, an internal defense. Yep. But as soon as I went overseas, especially to what’s called, uh, what was called us, MLM, United States Military Liaison Mission, where I was spying on the Soviet army, that became, that was a wake up call.

[00:28:20] Pat McNamara: This just like, holy sh this is no holds barred. You can’t mess this up. ’cause they reserve the right to execute you. You’re in their territory. You do not have complete autonomy here. It’s a game of cat and mouse. They know what you are doing. Um, it became, it, it became a, uh, uh, a lesson in life in that you can’t make mistakes.

[00:28:46] Pat McNamara: And there, there are several memorable times that, especially getting chased the first time you get chased by a piece of Soviet kit. Because, because EA lot, like I said, it was in a horrible state of disrepair, but a lot of it’s really badass, you know? I mean like a, like take a bmp for example. BMP one or BMP two, it’s like the velociraptor of the kit world.

[00:29:08] Pat McNamara: You know, the agility of those things and how fast they can move over tank trails. It’s really impressive. But man, I’ve been chased on dirt roads by the likes of SS 20 ones. Bmp, uh, BMP two, BMP one beater seventies beater sixties, PTST two. What were, where were 

[00:29:29] Lloyd Knight: you in when you were being Chase, Mercedes, 

[00:29:31] Pat McNamara: ghi.

[00:29:31] Pat McNamara: Glenda Vogan. Highly modified. Yeah. Yep. Highly modified. Militarized right down to turbo and, and diff locks and all this stuff. And you went to special driving schools for this? Machine and, you know, you’re driving under nods. And at the time it was PVS fives, you know, didn’t have, didn’t have anything high speed.

[00:29:53] Pat McNamara: I remember that. And you’re n you’re napping off of one over our 24,000 topographical scale maps too. That’s how your napp with a trip meter in front of you under nods. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, 

[00:30:05] Lloyd Knight: I’m thinking of what’s coming to my mind is, is that you’re gonna, you’re gonna laugh and, and call me a a dumb ass airman, the, uh, Chuck Norris Delta Force when they’re in the Mercedes.

[00:30:15] Pat McNamara: Oh, yeah, yeah. 

[00:30:15] Lloyd Knight: Trying, trying to get out to the submarine and driving in the Mercedes. 

[00:30:19] Pat McNamara: Right, 

[00:30:20] Lloyd Knight: right. So, 

[00:30:20] Pat McNamara: yep. Yeah. 

[00:30:21] Lloyd Knight: The amount of times I found myself in different 

[00:30:23] Pat McNamara: vehicles, it’s ridiculous. Yeah. Throughout my career. 

[00:30:27] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. You, yeah. You don’t picture that, right. You 

[00:30:29] Pat McNamara: right. 

[00:30:29] Lloyd Knight: You picture somebody in always military marked military grade equipment, right?

[00:30:33] Pat McNamara: Yeah. 

[00:30:34] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I remember the first time I loaded Delta force on, on my, uh, on my airplane. I was really young. Maybe 19. And they, uh, my, my instructor’s like, forget everything you’re gonna see. And the equipment was amazing, right? And they, uh, yeah. Yeah. So very, very different. What, what year was that first 

[00:30:55] Pat McNamara: time you loaded ’em on?

[00:30:55] Pat McNamara: Uh, 

[00:30:56] Lloyd Knight: 1988. Okay. 

[00:30:58] Pat McNamara: I was hoping, maybe it was during my tenure. ’cause I, I would’ve said, Hey, I might have been on your plane then 

[00:31:03] Lloyd Knight: you, you never know. Yep. The, um, so let’s talk about your, your kind of the journey from first going, completing the Q course, the Delta force. Yeah. So I 

[00:31:17] Pat McNamara: landed a couple Cold War jobs right after, uh, from first Special Forces group.

[00:31:22] Pat McNamara: Really fortunate. I mean, most people have no idea that they existed. I didn’t know that they existed. People in the SF community didn’t know they existed. And I was there for, you know, the wall coming down 1981, all the way to reunification in 19 91, 19 89, 19 91. But when the wall came down or reunification, I was like, well, what’s the next step?

[00:31:44] Pat McNamara: I’ve been Special Forces. I’m a Whiskey nine Combat Dive Halo two SF moss. I’ve had a couple cold board jobs. There’s only one. There’s only one option. You gotta try out for Delta now you have to, if you want to level up. I landed a slot, went to selection, and the first big movement, which is like on day one, I broke my ankle.

[00:32:12] Pat McNamara: Oh yeah. The amount of schools I failed is ridiculous. I mean, I am the master of failing and recovering. Yeah. So I ended up walking on it for another week. It was the, the swelling was so bad that I had to cut the sides of my boots. Yeah. So I could fit my foot in there. And then I just duct tape, duct tape the boot together.

[00:32:36] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Around my foot. Yeah. So that was the daily occurrence. But, um, they gave me the opportunity to try again. All right. And I’m like, damn straight. You’re giving me the opportunity. I am doing it. Yeah. And the second time I did, you know, I did well and man, what a feeling that was. And then when you get there, though, yeah, there’s a level of ego, you know, and, and every.

[00:33:00] Pat McNamara: Special ops guys. Yep. Absolutely. In his mind and his heart, a requirement and, and prior to going to Delta, I was always like top tier. I was that top tier guy, you know, performer. All around, performer. I get there and it’s welcome to mediocre. You don’t know shit. You know nothing. Yeah. 

[00:33:23] Lloyd Knight: Wow. It was that different.

[00:33:24] Lloyd Knight: Oh my God. That much of a bizarre, I mean, it was like, 

[00:33:27] Pat McNamara: what in the hail? I thought I’d stop. Wow. Holy. Oh no, it was, oh no, it was, I mean the, uh, the, the difference was night and day and the amount of responsibility. That you had and yeah, and accountability, all that stuff. It was night and day. Night and day.

[00:33:50] Pat McNamara: And you always found yourself trying to level up. Well, you know, you want to get better. It’s just like the wrestling thing. You’re a part of the team and you train with the team. You wanna be a team asset team player. But if you want to get better, you gotta put in the extra hours. Just like you know, the wrestling thing, right?

[00:34:05] Pat McNamara: You’ve gotta be self-governed, which mean you came in earlier to do extra pt, which mean you stay later, you know, which meant you come in on the weekends sometime it could be a Sunday morning at 2:00 AM to go do night fire on your own, uh, which was permissible. And encouraged, but you were always trying to level up because there’s always somebody better, no matter how good I got there.

[00:34:31] Pat McNamara: And I, I, and I ended up being, you know, I, I would say a very respectful, top tier operator. But man, I mean, there were always, always, always somebody that could do this better, that better this better, that better always. Um, so yeah, it was quite an experience. I’m so fortunate to have spent 13 years there. 13.

[00:34:55] Pat McNamara: 13 years. Wow. The last 13 years. So how long has that school? Well, the selection course is only a few weeks. I don’t even, I don’t even know, even though I’ve supported it like three times. Yeah. Yeah. And there’s a massive attrition rate as you can imagine. Yeah. Uh, it’s like a, it’s like a 80 to 90% attrition rate in selection.

[00:35:18] Pat McNamara: And then the school, the OTC, the operator’s trainers course is six months. And when I say six months, it’s like six months. There’s no break. Yeah, you’re just going the whole time. I mean, it’s six months, there’s no like, yeah, let’s take a freaking long weekend or this and that. No, no. It’s six months. Yeah.

[00:35:38] Pat McNamara: Great. Yeah. And then you think you know something and then you go join a saber squadron and then you realize, I don’t know. Squat. Yeah. Nothing. 

[00:35:48] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. So your first, uh, assignment after that was what the, explain what a saber squadron is. 

[00:35:54] Pat McNamara: The, um, basically the assaulters, you know, guys, the door kickers. Yep.

[00:36:00] Pat McNamara: All right. Yep. Guys are doing the, the heavy lifting, you know, the, the, the mission ready guys on the bubble. 

[00:36:09] Lloyd Knight: All right. Yep. Can you talk about memorable mission that you had in the Delta force? Uh, yeah. 

[00:36:16] Pat McNamara: I, I, I think one of the, uh, real cool ones for me early on was, not early on, but while I was, you know, just getting a little more seniority, was doing some stuff in Bosnia, policing up the epiphanys, the persons indicted for war crimes.

[00:36:33] Pat McNamara: Yeah. And I did five of those. But, uh, I, I can’t, I, I won’t get in, I won’t get into detail about ’em too much, you know? Yeah, I understand that. Yeah. But, um, there was one that we were just speculating, like this could happen. You know, what could happen, when could it happen? Uh, we were the masters of that. You know, you create your own luck type of thing.

[00:36:54] Pat McNamara: You set the stage, you create what may happen, and we just spit balling, you know, we’re like, we might have to go police these guys up, and here’s the course of action based on what I saw on the ground of how we could get these guys. And the first one we got, uh, this guy general ick, we trained for about a year with no mission.

[00:37:18] Pat McNamara: With no mission task list. Wow. Yeah. We trained about a year, and then we get. A mission. And then we trained another two months, and then we went and got him. And the mission itself took about a minute and 35 seconds 

[00:37:34] Lloyd Knight: get outta here. So a 

[00:37:34] Pat McNamara: year and two months training. Minute 35 seconds. 

[00:37:38] Lloyd Knight: So I’m guessing if it was that short, it went really well.

[00:37:41] Lloyd Knight: Really well. 

[00:37:42] Pat McNamara: Yep. 

[00:37:43] Lloyd Knight: Yep. Really well. Yep. 

[00:37:44] Pat McNamara: Yep. No mission goes as planned ever. No, it never goes as planned. Yeah. But it went as smoothly as possible. Very few hiccups, you know, a couple little freaking ah, shits, but nothing huge. 

[00:37:58] Lloyd Knight: One, one of my first, uh, episodes of the, uh, podcast, I had John Thompson, who was Commander of the Night Stalkers during the Bin Laden raid.

[00:38:06] Lloyd Knight: Mm-hmm. And, and then I asked him about that, that Hilo crashing, or as he would call it, a controlled landing. Right. The, uh, he goes, it wasn’t, they trained for it. So the, uh, you know, the, uh, it, it wasn’t nobody panicked. It wasn’t even that much of a shock. They just, the training kicked in the gear and, and they were able to overcome it.

[00:38:27] Pat McNamara: Yeah. I’ve been in several of those hard landings. 

[00:38:32] Lloyd Knight: I bet, I bet. You know, if the helicopter lands on its 

[00:38:34] Pat McNamara: side or turns over like that, it’s just a hard landing. It’s like a crash.

[00:38:41] Pat McNamara: Were you ever scared? I’m sure I have to think about, um, not during any like, mission stuff, but I was scared in training it several times. 

[00:38:50] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. 

[00:38:50] Pat McNamara: But training is always harder. Yeah. You know, you, you, 

[00:38:53] Lloyd Knight: I, I, uh, interesting enough, I, out of all those years of flying and I did flight tests and some really crazy stuff, I was, I never got scared until years later, until after I retired.

[00:39:05] Lloyd Knight: And then I look back on it now like, oh, what in the world? Absolutely. And then, 

[00:39:10] Pat McNamara: yep. 

[00:39:10] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. 

[00:39:10] Pat McNamara: Yep. It’s like that. Just like that. Right? Same. 

[00:39:13] Lloyd Knight: So, so you went on to retire as a, as a sergeant major. Did you ever think that was gonna happen? Oh, hell no. When you first joined the Army? No. 

[00:39:21] Pat McNamara: I was flying by the seat of my pants, you know.

[00:39:24] Pat McNamara: No, I was in it for the excitement, the fun, the comradery, the, the hardship, the training, the, I was in it for all that, for I guess all the right reasons, not, let me see if I could make rank. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t. I didn’t. And, 

[00:39:39] Lloyd Knight: and how many years did you spend on? 22. 22. Well, wow. Sergeant Major retired at 22.

[00:39:44] Lloyd Knight: That’s, yep. You did well. And why’d you get out? Uh 

[00:39:49] Pat McNamara: oh man, it’s a little ugly, but I had little kids. Yeah. And their mom was not well, yeah. Uh, a product of the mental health system. Yeah, a lot of drinking involved, a lot of pills. And I had to get out for their. Benefit because they were not being looked after.

[00:40:08] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I, I always, you know, there’s always should, would’ve coulda in the back of my head. 

[00:40:15] Lloyd Knight: Yep. Yeah. I bet. Yeah. That’s always, you know, you’re gonna have shoulda, would’ve coulds. Yeah. And you had a, I talk a lot about transition. You know, my, my, my day job, I’ve been at UPS for 18 years where, and over the last two plus years I’ve been in charge of veteran recruiting and really take gr great pride in, in, uh, you helping veterans transition.

[00:40:36] Lloyd Knight: And on the surface, you look like you had a great transition. Yep. But I know I’ve heard enough of your story. You didn’t, you went to go work for a, a big company. You had all that stuff going on with your, with your wife, which, which caused you to drink. And they, uh. And, and, and treat yourself. You were depressed.

[00:40:53] Pat McNamara: Mm-hmm. 

[00:40:54] Lloyd Knight: You got laid off in, in that a, uh, with that company and, and, and things were gone in a very wrong direction for you. Yeah. And, uh, and, and you were able to, I I, I, I love the way you, you talk about it, you had to fix yourself. 

[00:41:10] Pat McNamara: Yeah. I, uh, can you talk a little bit about that? I didn’t count on anybody else.

[00:41:14] Pat McNamara: I mean, it was a, you know, like a spiritual awakening of sorts. Yeah. I’ve landed a job before I retired with a corporation who wanted me to build a training company for them, and I did that and about four plus years into that. I got laid off and on, on the phone too, you know? Yeah. Which, it’s like, what does that even mean?

[00:41:37] Pat McNamara: What do you, I, I don’t understand this. I, because you never think about job security while you’re in the military and then you’re working for a corporation that does a lot of God contract stuff and you’re working with a bunch of retired military guys, so you figure, you know, it’s similar. Job security.

[00:41:53] Pat McNamara: So got laid off because they, it was a money thing. They got bought out, so they were laying off. It was like five of us I think, who got laid off because we were full-time guys and they just wanted to hire the contractors, pay bits and pieces here and there. And that was pretty scary. That was very 

[00:42:10] Lloyd Knight: scary.

[00:42:10] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, I, I bet it was scary, especially when you got all this other stuff in the background going on. 

[00:42:16] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Yep. All that other crap and you know, little kids bills to pay. Uh, a wife who didn’t support me, it’s almost like she wanted me to fail. Yeah. But yeah, that was real spooky. That was 2010, but I immediately generated my own company, Tmax Inc.

[00:42:38] Pat McNamara: And nearly almost immediately started getting work. And there were big government contract jobs, federal law enforcement, military type of stuff. So, yeah. But. The marriage was going south in a hurry, you know, just nose diving. Yeah. Uh, and I was taking care of two little, I was working my butt off, coming home, taking care of two little kids and taking care of my drug addict wife.

[00:43:04] Pat McNamara: And I just felt, and there was no support from me. It was just beat down, beat down, beat down, beat down, beat down. It was nonstop. It was nonstop. It was a, it was a everlasting, perpetual motion machine of negativity and just constant beratement. Nothing you did was right. And you know, you, it’s, it’s hard to withstand that for any type of duration.

[00:43:32] Pat McNamara: And for me it was, yeah. I mean, duration was fine. When you have 

[00:43:35] Lloyd Knight: 360 of that, that’s how a lot of veterans put a gun in their mouth. 

[00:43:39] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Yep. I lived in the bonus room above my garage for five years. Five years in the bonus room, bonus room above my garage. It’s a little case. So 

[00:43:46] Lloyd Knight: what was the first step to get you out of that funk 

[00:43:49] Pat McNamara: kids?

[00:43:50] Pat McNamara: You know, I, I remember being pretty hammered. It was only like eight at night. Been drinking all day and my son, uh, was sitting next. ’cause they, they would come up all the time and watch TV with me. They needed escape too from their mom. Yeah. So they would hang out with me and we’d watch, you know, Simpsons or whatever, just watch a bunch of goofy cartoons.

[00:44:10] Pat McNamara: And, and, and I tell this story a lot, uh, only because, um, I like to recollect it. But James and I were sitting in my bonus room. Imagine, you know, it’s very small, it’s kind of cabin, like it’s got an A-frame, you know, you could touch the roof in any position and there’s a little teeny window in it, you know, and there’s a big willow tree out in front and there’s, it’s dark in, in that room we had one small lamp, one small lamp, incandescent, light bulb.

[00:44:39] Pat McNamara: So the room is filled with this yellow, warm yellow and a little tv and we’re sitting on my futon. ’cause I had a couch and it double as a bed. Uh, and that’s what I slept in for five years. And, uh, we’re looking at the TV and I see something outta the corner of my eye at the window and I look at the window and a screech owl lands right on the windows.

[00:45:00] Pat McNamara: The window’s open. So it lands right there, right on the windowsill. And I’m looking at it. I’m, it’s, it’s, it’s six feet away. Yeah. You know, it’s right there. And I whisper, I go, James, he goes, yeah. I said, real slow. Look at the window. And I could see him, uh, turning that way. And I, I’m still looking in the hour, but I could see out of my peripheral vision him going like that.

[00:45:27] Pat McNamara: You know, the owl was turning Yeah. Looking outside. Back in. Yeah. Yeah. Looking back in. And then it takes off and I, and I look at him when it took off and he was, he was like, that was cold. And I look at this little kid with his big brown eyes and stuff, and, um, I said, and it kind of hit me right then too, dude, I gotta take care of these kids.

[00:45:48] Pat McNamara: I gotta be around. I said, James, I, I don’t. I don’t just love you, I am in love with you. And he started crying. Wow. Yeah. So that was pretty powerful. We hung out there for a little bit longer. I put him to bed and I sat on the edge of my futon and just thought, man, I gotta get my shit together. ’cause I was, I was giving up.

[00:46:11] Pat McNamara: I was giving up, I was capitulating to darkness. I was done. I was like, I could live, like, I could live at rock bottom. Mm-hmm. I was just, you know, I, but I sat on the edge of my bed and I sat an alarm clock. Next morning was, I think it was Sunday for, I think this was a Saturday night. So Sunday. And I set it for 6:00 AM and I put my running shoots shoes out and a pair of shorts and my, uh, iPod.

[00:46:40] Pat McNamara: And I said, I’m gonna go for a run tomorrow morning. Alarm clock rang. I put my stuff on. I went for a run and I just. But I mean, it was, I had no plan in mind. It was like, it, I, I ran for more than an hour. I know that hour and 15 minutes, I come back in my driveway and I, I’m looking at this home and I just hate it.

[00:47:02] Pat McNamara: I call it the home. We dreams go to die. No, I was, I was in a bad place that run and then I work out in my driveway for another hour. Yeah, just up and down pushups, situps, you know, just dumbbells. And man, I remember feeling rejuvenated, you know, like I remembered who I am, you know, I remembered it. Wow. I remembered it.

[00:47:29] Pat McNamara: And that’s when I said to myself, I will not be defeated. I will not be defeated. I’m not buried. I’m not, yeah. I’m planted. Watch me grow outta this hole. Yep. So, wow. That was, that was, that was my, I had so many second leases on life. That was one of ’em right there too. 

[00:47:51] Lloyd Knight: Wow. Wow. That brother that gives me chills.

[00:47:53] Lloyd Knight: So, so that’s great to visualize it, but how did you do it? 

[00:47:58] Pat McNamara: I just made the decision to go for a run. 

[00:48:00] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. I mean, I don’t, but what, 

[00:48:02] Pat McNamara: what was next after that? Oh, right, right, right. Oh, oh, yeah. So there was a sequence of events that happened directly after that. One was, I felt alone. I was all alone. Nobody knew.

[00:48:13] Pat McNamara: Nobody knew how bad I didn’t, you know, whine and piss and moan anybody about how I was feeling. ’cause I, I just put on a front, I’m patm get you so I’m catching up, burn it down, blah, blah. You know, I just did all that. Yeah. It was a big front. Um, and I had no support mechanism. Nobody, my kids were my only out, you know, they were my vehicle of escapism.

[00:48:36] Pat McNamara: I did everything with them. And one, like right after that, it wasn’t, but days after that run and I’m still, ah, you know, I’m fired up now Cop comes to my house and I knew a local cop and he says, Hey, uh, your wife’s in the village and she’s out of her gore. She’s stoned on something. You know, this and that.

[00:49:03] Pat McNamara: And I brush it off. I’m like, all right, cool. I’ll go pick her up. You know, hum on. And this cop looked at me and he, and they had been at my house five, six times in the past couple years. ’cause she would call, you know, because I was, uh, I don’t know, bugging the phones or manipulating thet TV through my cell phone while I was in Texas.

[00:49:22] Pat McNamara: Or you know, that I had, uh, women living in her closet. She’s very, very de delusional. When, well, when people say all women are crazy, they don’t understand the term. Crazy, you know? Yeah. Women could be bitches. Great. Good. I don’t care. I could deal with that. Um, but legit, crazy, like no connection between the neuroreceptors.

[00:49:43] Pat McNamara: And she would have like all the sockets taken off of all the, uh, outlets, all the covers, showing the cops. Like, see these blue washers in here? She playing bug in the house. And then, you know, and this girl lives in the closet. She tries on my shoes. Her name is Skeeter. She had names for you, Skeeter Magpie a couple.

[00:49:59] Pat McNamara: So anyway, they knew. They knew. Yeah. So this cop says, he comes up to me, he’s like right in my face. He goes, Hey, um, you need to get the hell outta here. And I said, huh? He says, you need to take radical steps. The kids are resilient. I know you’re here for the kids. They will survive. And dude, the, this is the first time that I ever had anybody, you know, support me or understand or give me some kind of empathy on this.

[00:50:29] Pat McNamara: And I broke down, bro. I had no idea that was even in me. Wow. Yeah. I just fell apart. And the next day I moved out based on what that cop said. Uh, so he, he, and, and periodically I still see him around and I always thank him. I was like, bro, you saved my freaking life and maybe my kids’ life, and probably saved me from freaking putting a bullet in my head or whatever, you know, who knows?

[00:50:53] Pat McNamara: But you saved my life. And I think that’s important for people too, is recognize the signs, you know, be preemptive. That kind of stuff. But, um, yeah, I found a condo. The next day I found a condo. It was 500 yards from where I lived, so now I’m still close to the kids, you know? Right. Yeah. And that was 2013 and then March.

[00:51:14] Pat McNamara: And 

[00:51:15] Lloyd Knight: how long after that did Rebecca come on? The same, uh, 

[00:51:17] Pat McNamara: that was March, or let me say April 1st, April, may, June, July, August, end of August, beginning of September. So about five months. All right. Yep. 

[00:51:28] Lloyd Knight: About that. And, and, and how did the last we heard she was, had a boyfriend that went through your course, right?

[00:51:34] Lloyd Knight: Right. But now this is a year and a half later. Yeah. So, so how did that, 

[00:51:38] Pat McNamara: so she went, she went to the West coast with him. You know, after we met and it just fell apart. He was good guy, really bad boyfriend, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah. Good guy. Sucks at being a boyfriend, but, uh, and she’s her own person, man.

[00:51:53] Pat McNamara: She does not mess around. Yeah. She’s very disciplined. She’s very governed, self-governed. She’s very extremely intelligent. So yeah, when she. She came back and I met her again at my local pub in the beginning of Sem, September, 2013. She taps me on my shoulder and I turned it was outside on the patio, and I turned around.

[00:52:18] Pat McNamara: She goes, do you remember me? And I was like, oh my God. Yeah. I tried not to look. That surprised. Yeah. But you did. Yeah. I think I masked it pretty well. I was like, oh yeah, sure, yeah, yeah. Back, blah, blah. Yeah. How’s it going? How’s your boyfriend? Oh, we broke up. Oh, bummer. How’s everything here? Oh, we’re separated.

[00:52:39] Pat McNamara: Oh, right on. Cool. You know, so I, I started wooing her after that, you know, like walking her home. So, so 

[00:52:46] Lloyd Knight: you woo her by buying her a knife? Yeah. 

[00:52:48] Pat McNamara: Flashlight was the first one, and then a knife was the next Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pocket. Yep. Yep. Walk her home, you know? Yep, yep. Yeah, it was taking a real slow, it didn’t take as, it didn’t take as long.

[00:53:02] Pat McNamara: I mean, the fire was, it was inevitable. That we were gonna spontaneously combust, you know? 

[00:53:11] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. So now you got this relationship that is so healthy for you, you, you, you’re working on, on, on yourself. You’re working on the business, but in the meantime, you got some pretty serious health problems. 

[00:53:23] Pat McNamara: Yeah. 

[00:53:24] Lloyd Knight: I mean, if, if so, um, you had, you have that mm-hmm.

[00:53:28] Lloyd Knight: You, you jumping out airplanes, which, which is never good on your body. You got into a motorcycle accident with a deer. Yep. So, 

[00:53:37] Pat McNamara: oh, I’ve 

[00:53:37] Lloyd Knight: been banged up. I 

[00:53:38] Pat McNamara: mean, I, I could, I could, there’s laundry list of me getting banged up. I mean, laundry list 

[00:53:43] Lloyd Knight: and then, um, and then you get sick. 

[00:53:45] Pat McNamara: Yeah. 

[00:53:46] Lloyd Knight: You have this rheumatoid condition really that just nos you on your house.

[00:53:50] Lloyd Knight: Yep, 

[00:53:50] Pat McNamara: yep. Came out of nowhere. That started in May of 21. Okay. 

[00:53:54] Lloyd Knight: May so that’s a little bit more recent. Yep. Yep. So 

[00:53:57] Pat McNamara: yeah, this, I mean, it’s still ongoing. I still have it. 

[00:54:01] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. 

[00:54:02] Pat McNamara: Polymyalgia that PMR. 

[00:54:04] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. 

[00:54:05] Pat McNamara: It’s horrible. 

[00:54:06] Lloyd Knight: So I know it zaps all your energy, all your strength. Yeah. 

[00:54:08] Pat McNamara: And mobility. Everything hurts all the time.

[00:54:11] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Bones, muscles, joints, 

[00:54:14] Lloyd Knight: everything. Yeah. So what’s your regimen to mitigate that? 

[00:54:17] Pat McNamara: Well, my regimen is a lot different than the medical. Communities regimen, the medical community treats, and how do they treat little orange bottles with white caps? Yep. Poise. Yep. But the thing is, desperate times create desperation.

[00:54:38] Pat McNamara: So you’ll take freaking anything if it’s gonna make you feel better. Yep. Because I couldn’t navigate a flight of stairs. I couldn’t drive a car. I could not reach for a coffee cup. I could not shirt. Yeah, I remember that. I could not open up bottle water and it, everything was excruciating, everything.

[00:54:54] Pat McNamara: Nonstop. And then with major inflammation comes all the fun stuff like, uh, nerve pain. So you’re only sleeping four hours a night and then comes IBS with inflammation. So you’re, you know, peeing outta your butt 12 times a day for two years. Uh, it just, it’s just the whole thing was absolutely freaking horrible.

[00:55:13] Pat McNamara: And Rebecca and I are, we’re healthy, we eat well, we exercise, we work out, we do, we’re down to earth. But I started a, uh, whole different, I got rid of, or all the orange bottles. I started becoming motivated by vanity. Yeah. Looking in the mirror and going, oh my God, I look like poop. Whew. Yeah. And, um, we started going all natural.

[00:55:39] Pat McNamara: Mother nature has everything to, to cure us. Everything. Yeah. Mother Nature does. We just, we, we just call it pseudoscience now because there’s no money in it. If you could grow it and take it and it makes you feel better, there’s no money in it. A, as you could tell, I’m not a big fan of big Pharma. Yep, I 

[00:55:56] Lloyd Knight: get it.

[00:55:57] Lloyd Knight: So the, uh, so, uh, my, my wife Sarah says, have why 

[00:56:00] Pat McNamara: helicopters fly over my roof here in Tampa. 

[00:56:05] Lloyd Knight: My wife Sarah says, motion is medicine. Motion is lotion. So, and I, and yep. And they, uh, the watching your workouts, it’s amazing that you have a condition like that. Well, I, I mean, didn’t disclose it 

[00:56:18] Pat McNamara: in open forum until I started feeling better.

[00:56:20] Pat McNamara: I didn’t want to pity party. Okay. You know, because I got a big fan base. I got a, a lot of people follow me. I, and I didn’t want them all say, oh man, I hope you feel better, you know, screw that. But once I started feeling better. CJ and I did a podcast on my buddy cj we’re part of, we’re, we’re, we’re owners and proprietors of the University of Badassery.

[00:56:40] Pat McNamara: So I did a podcast Yeah. In detail of all of the, uh, everything that was bothering me and the steps I went to take preventative measures, curing measures. Yeah. And one was getting off prescription meds, going all natural. I started craniosacral massage, infrared sauna, and doing, you know, the infrared sauna, the cold punch, all the, all that stuff, you know, that people know about.

[00:57:06] Pat McNamara: Yeah. Uh, my diet was already good ’cause all I use food, I don’t eat any product and it’s mostly meat. Yeah. Uh, but meat and veg. Yeah. And yeah, I just started going a completely different route, a more, um, holistic type of route and All right. That ended up squaring me away. Yeah. I mean, it’s still, it’s still, you know, with, with, with chronic pain comes shitty disposition and deportment, you know, is in a bad mood or, you know, it just, you know, just plague, you know, it’s nonstop.

[00:57:35] Pat McNamara: Yeah. It’s like, ugh. You know, it’s puy. It feels nauseating like in the back of the neck, shoulders, and the hips. Yeah. 

[00:57:42] Lloyd Knight: How do you blow up, you know, you, you got a veteran-owned business that’s doing well. You became this social media. Like just this guru, like the king of social media. Uh, you, you embraced it when frankly, a lot of, I think you mentioned on the, the podcast with Joe Rogan, a lot of veterans are rage, don’t, they’re afraid of it.

[00:58:01] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[00:58:02] Lloyd Knight: So how, how did that happen? 

[00:58:03] Pat McNamara: Well, I’m different right? Than all the veteran influencers see out there, out. This is what I did. I’m an ex Navy seal. I’m an ex marine recon. I don’t care. I don’t care. I’m not arrest on your morals. Mamba Jamba. Yeah. I mean, yes. Bad ass. I’ve heard you say that. I’m a badass yesterday, but I’m a badass tomorrow.

[00:58:23] Pat McNamara: I don’t need to rest on its, but um, and the other thing I noticed with the so is people were genuinely craving genuine. There’s so much fake out there. There’s so much fluff. There’s so much pho. Yeah. You know, and it just nauseating, you know, I started slow but got a, a like a following quick and then I started incorporating.

[00:58:42] Pat McNamara: There was one thing I started doing, maybe in 2017 I started doing Sunday Sentinel sermons. Which were just little pma. There were 30 to 42nd PSAs, public safety announcements, you know, basically from, uh, rules, little segments of my sentinel book. All right? And I started doing those. And numbers increased numbers, increased numbers increased.

[00:59:03] Pat McNamara: So I started clearing out all the fluff for my site. Like, ah, people don’t need to see what I’m eating. You know, I don’t, that’s still copy and paste. Everybody does that stuff. They don’t need to see this. They don’t need to see. That. Doesn’t need to be long. Attention span of human being short. And then in 2019, I struck gold with another idea, which was basic dude stuff.

[00:59:22] Pat McNamara: Uh, yeah, that’s basic dude stuff is just 

[00:59:25] Lloyd Knight: a genius 

[00:59:26] Pat McNamara: dude. I mean that, uh, that, that, that game traction so fast that I had to do this. Yeah. Yeah. Six months in. Yeah. Copyright, right? Six months in. I had a trade market six months in. ’cause people would copying it because there’s a, there’s so many echoes out there, you know, in a, in a, in a void of, uh, there there’s void.

[00:59:43] Pat McNamara: People are void of, um, you know, imagination, creativity. 

[00:59:47] Lloyd Knight: So what I love about basic dude stuff is it’s you, right? You’re, you’re, it, it, it’s probably things that you’ve done for a very long time. Yeah. Uh, normal. Every bit your life, like maintaining a garden, right? Hey, uh, taking care of your weapons, you know, changing oil on all your machinery, right?

[01:00:06] Lloyd Knight: I, uh, and, and you do it in, in, in a really quite humorous way. Yeah. I mean, it’s just 

[01:00:11] Pat McNamara: everything that we human beings should be able to do. And it’s not about dudes, it’s about people. It’s all inclusive, it’s all encompassing. It’s all people. Yeah. You know, because just a hundred years ago we were, uh, precipitous.

[01:00:22] Pat McNamara: We know how to do all the things. Yeah. We can hunt it, kill it, eat it, fix it, minute, repair it, you know, we could do all the stuff. You know, it wasn’t that long. We could do all this stuff, all of us. Now, there’s men, men who can’t even navigate in the way, run a screwdriver. I went to a, a grown man’s house a couple years ago, and uh, he had something to fix.

[01:00:43] Pat McNamara: I said, I could fix that and just bring my toolbox. Your toolbox. He didn’t have a toolbox in his house. He had a junk drawer with, uh, uh, with a Dollar General pliers and a Dollar General. Phillips said, screwdriver, I’m good. What? How could this be a thing? Yeah, man. I mean, and, and you know, it’s not, it’s not about dudes, it’s about people, human beings.

[01:01:09] Lloyd Knight: I got a business idea. You need to start teaching basic dude stuff, classes. Yeah. That’s, 

[01:01:15] Pat McNamara: uh, those ideas started in 2020. I mean, the amount of times I get that every week. Every time I post, when people say you need to start doing basic dude stuff, classes. And it’s not the realm of possibility now. And matter of fact, I have done it, I have been invited to events where the guy says, Hey, we just want you to do basic dude stuff.

[01:01:37] Pat McNamara: So I’m like, well, given the event, yeah, we’re gonna do knots. We’re gonna do, um, 3 0 1 ratio systems and we’re gonna do, uh, improvise fire and we’re gonna do improvises, you know, and just whatever It’s Yep. 

[01:01:52] Lloyd Knight: I, I love it. And, and then let’s talk a little bit about how basic dude stuff morphed into a kid show.

[01:01:59] Pat McNamara: So there was really the only connection ’cause there’s not a lot of connection there. Yeah. Okay. The connection one was months in to basic dude stuff. I started getting, I. Adult sending me videos of their kids doing basic dude stuff, you know, making your bed. Wow. Making your bed is basic dude stuff. You know, these little girls, little boys helping out with chores, basic dude stuff, you know, playing outside, you know, I mean, just, it went on and on and then I thought, oh man, I got a kid following.

[01:02:33] Pat McNamara: I gotta make sure that basic dude stuff is clean, no causes, no tobacco, no alcohol, none of that. It’s gotta be clean. So anyway, I, I have, um, I just, I I, I’ve never lost a child inside of me, you know what I mean? Never. I never have. I am still a, an 8-year-old at heart. I am full of wonder, you know, and still curiosity, uh, which is a shame that adults, you know, we lose that.

[01:03:04] Pat McNamara: As we get older. Yep. Being full of wonder. In 2020 during, uh, pandemic conation, the kids in the neighborhood started calling me Mr. Matao. No reason for it. I asked the, or the, uh, the originator. This is little girl. I said, Hey, why Mr. Matao? She goes, I don’t know. I said, where’d you hear it from? She goes, I dunno, I just started calling you all the kids in the neighborhood in my cul-de-sac, I think there are a dozen 12 kids.

[01:03:33] Pat McNamara: They all call me Mr. Masavia, all of them. And they just think, and that’s what I answer to. They think that’s my name. They know no different. I am not Pat Mack. I am, I am Mr. Matao. So, um, the notion of a kid show was always on my mind. But, uh, Rebecca went to school to get another degree, uh, social work. Bless.

[01:03:56] Pat McNamara: Bless. Yeah. And it was, uh, a horrible experience. She graduated and she would come home in tears. That’s the system is broken, man. Especially with little kids. Yeah, absolutely. It’s broken. Yeah. The other thing that pains me is to see little kids void of curiosity. Parents will force tablets on ’em. I, I could get angry right now talking about this.

[01:04:19] Pat McNamara: Mm-hmm. I’ve seen only because I am not on a device when I’m out and about, I see things, I pay attention. It’s the babysitter, watcher. But parents will force tablets and phones on kids. Even if they’re looking around. They, they could just be doodling or, I don’t know, looking at a bird in a tree. Nope.

[01:04:38] Pat McNamara: Here’s a device plopping at a restaurant, you know, too. Yeah. It’s like, no, that’s where a kid learns matters. That’s where he learns to converse. That’s where a parent talks to a child and vice versa. And I, I’m just mind blown. It’s like, let’s see how stupid we can make kids. Let’s rob him. Let’s rob him of curiosity, you know, of imagination.

[01:05:00] Pat McNamara: Let’s, I’m gonna say this with impunity because I believe it’s true. I think you’re better off and it’s healthier for a kid giving him a lit cigarette than it is a device. While he is out and about, especially outside, he’s better off getting a lit cigarette. So Rebecca would come home in tears and one night we’re sitting up here and we’re both emotional wrecks and I said, Rebecca, we could be part of the problem or part of the solution.

[01:05:27] Pat McNamara: Let’s be part of the solution. I says, I have this idea. I have no idea if it’s gonna morph into, and I still don’t know if it’s gonna morph into anything. ’cause we just put out promos. It hasn’t been popped out there in the the inner web sphere. Yeah. So I started putting together these shorts. I figured if a kid is going to watch a show while he is outside.

[01:05:54] Pat McNamara: On a device, he may as well watch me telling him to get outside and the benefits of it. It’s very fun. It’s, um, yeah, it’s very fun. Very innocent. It’s, it’s designed for little kids. It’s kind of, I I call it a cool Mr. Rogers. 

[01:06:09] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. I watched the promos. The promos are good. If I had a million dollars and I don’t, I would give you, give you some the, the run with this.

[01:06:19] Lloyd Knight: ’cause I think it’s gonna be huge. 

[01:06:20] Pat McNamara: Yeah. I, uh, I told Rebecca last night, I asked her, I says, Hey, do you think there will come a time in my life where I’m somewhere out and about? And kids say, Hey, Mr. Matao, you know, strangers? And she goes, oh, that’s gonna happen. Yeah, I believe it. So I start everyone the same way.

[01:06:40] Pat McNamara: And it’s, uh, welcome back. I walk outside, Mr. Rogers walked inside. Mr. Rogers took off his loafers, put on his tennis. Yeah. And wonderful day in the neighborhood. I love Mr. Big fan. Huge. Yeah. I got really stuck his neck out. He did stuff that was not popular. You know, boys are boys and girls. Girls. Anyway, he really stuck his neck out.

[01:07:04] Pat McNamara: He was a champion for kids champion. So, but he would come in, take his loafers off, put his tennis on. I start each episode going outside, welcome. And I take my shoes off and I walk barefoot in the grass. And it starts with welcome back to Mr. MISO’s world of wonder where it’s cool to be curious and we, where we will explore our world, you know, because there’s so many and, and, and I do most of it in my backyard.

[01:07:36] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. 

[01:07:36] Pat McNamara: My dog is, but you have 

[01:07:37] Lloyd Knight: an amazing, you have an amazing piece of property, 

[01:07:40] Pat McNamara: dude. It’s only, it’s only, it’s only an acre. 

[01:07:44] Lloyd Knight: It’s only an acre. Yep. I just do a lot with wow. You’ve done a whole lot with this. Yeah. So, and you’re living in North Carolina? Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So the, uh, yeah. Very, very cool. I, I, I can’t wait to see it.

[01:07:58] Lloyd Knight: I think it’s gonna be neat. Speaking of your property, you have a lot of really cool toys on your property? The, uh, yeah. I, I like it to your toys? I, um, I have a 68 Mustang. Oh, bro. So the, uh, but, but I can, uh, I’ve had for 30 years, but I can appreciate your goat. Yeah. So the, uh, how’d you get your hands on that?

[01:08:19] Lloyd Knight: Oh 

[01:08:19] Pat McNamara: man. Cool story. Lemme see. It was 2000, lemme think. Uh, f 2014, I think it was. No, 15. 2015. I had 10 years. Um, I’ve always wanted an old muscle car, and if I could get a birth date to one, that’d be even cooler, you know? Yeah. Big fan of old American muscle. I mean, like, I was a nerd when I was 12, you know, it bothered my dad.

[01:08:43] Pat McNamara: He says, you cannot become a grease monkey, blah, blah, blah. I was like, but they’re so cool. You know? These things are so cool. They’re so cool. But, uh. I was in the gym and I overheard a guy that, uh, was working out in there and I knew him and he was talking about his dad and the cars he owns, and I just overheard, but he’s like, this car, that one, that one.

[01:09:04] Pat McNamara: And none of them were special, you know, none of ’em were like the prime years, you know, like a 72 Camaro, a 71 Cheval. You know, it’s kinda like that stuff, you know what I’m saying? He didn’t have the prime years. And then he goes in a 65 GTO and I said, Hey, uh, Ryan. Ryan, did you say your pops says a 65 GTO?

[01:09:27] Pat McNamara: And he goes, yeah. I said, damn man. What’s his plan? Do you think he ever part with it? He goes, and I was expecting, hell no, but he shrugs. He goes, I don’t know. I’ll ask him. I’m like, oh, all right. So he comes back, uh, a few days later and he says, yeah. And I’m like, oh my God. And so I drove. I had an idea of what he was asking for it.

[01:09:52] Pat McNamara: All right. And I drove with Rebecca to North of Charlotte, little teeny town, and he’s gone. He pulls up in it and I’m like, oh man, this thing is so cool. She just oozes cool oozes because it’s the first year of muscle car. You know that DeLorean coined the term muscle car off GTO? Yeah. And I had ca I had dollar bills and I laid stack of dollar bills of what I was gonna pay for and it was a lot less, you know, it was somewhat less than what he was asking.

[01:10:29] Pat McNamara: Yeah. And he’s looking at those stacks and he goes, nah bro, I can’t do it. I said, I, I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you. And I stacked it up. I said, nice chatting with you. You know, put that big freaking roll of dollar of hundreds back into my pocket and Rebecca and I take off. We just got on, get on I 40 and Rebecca goes, I bet that dude calls his wife and tells him that you had this much money laid out in the hood and she chews ass and says, you should have taken.

[01:10:58] Pat McNamara: And as soon as she finished saying that, my phone rings and it’s him and I look at her, I mean, it was not two seconds after she finished saying that and I pick it up, he goes, and he, this is what he said, Hey, uh, Mac, uh, well I talked to my wife so I sit in around, you know, next exit on the floor back there and yep, we did all the paperwork that day, title and everything and I drove it back from Charlotte.

[01:11:25] Pat McNamara: What a great story. Yeah. And then, you know, a lot of, lot of work. Nickel and dime. 

[01:11:30] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, I’ve, I’ve a, uh, I had a, um, when the, um, we purchased that 68 Mustang when I was at Edwards Air Force Base for like two grand. Nice. And a, uh, it was from some of my late wife’s pre inheritance money and we put a lot into it.

[01:11:46] Lloyd Knight: And then Is it a real car? In other words? Original engine. Original drivetrain, 

[01:11:50] Pat McNamara: yeah. Yeah. Original. No kidding. So hold on. And no Ross, it’s not a 2 89 is a 3 51 or a 2 8 2 89 9. Oh, cool. I love that. Little small car. Nothing special. I think that’s cool. Yeah. You know, it doesn’t have to be a must car. I think that I’ve, if I told Rebecca if I, I ever get a Mustang, I want that, I want that 2 89.

[01:12:08] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. It’s, uh, awesome. So, you know, I put a Mako Paint job on it. ’cause I was a poor staff sergeant. Right. And then a, uh, retired life got in front of me. I, I founded Vet Atlanta, which is a large veteran organization. I run, got my master’s degree and just let it sit. And then when she passed away. I had a newer Mustang.

[01:12:29] Lloyd Knight: I, I, I took it to a, um, a car wash and, and I was spending way, this is maybe like four or five days after she passed away, and I’m spending way too much time on it. And I have this Vietnam veteran who comes pulling up next to me, and he, he is got a, he’s got a Shelby totally badass, right? A, a newer one. But, and then I, you know, I’m, I’m very outgoing, but I’ve, I don’t often talk to a strangers at a car wash and just felt the need to the, to talk with this guy and said, Hey, I like your car.

[01:13:04] Lloyd Knight: And, and then he goes, I like yours too. And he saw something in my eyes. He is like, what’s going on with you? And they, uh, we had this great conversation. Oh, cool. Said my, you know, my, my late wife just passed away, you know, the, uh, I brought up the story of this 68 Mustang. Yep. And he goes, Hey, look, if, if you’re gonna sell it, don’t put another diamond to it, the, uh, just, just to sell it.

[01:13:28] Lloyd Knight: But if you have the money to honor her, go put more money than it’s ever gonna be worth. Right, right. And, and, and, and that’s what I did. Yeah. Good. So it’s, it’s a, uh, but if, if I’m feeling down or depressed or stressed, I, I’ll take that car for a ride and it, it just, yeah. Nice. Equals me out. Very cool. So let’s talk a little bit about your, your business again.

[01:13:52] Lloyd Knight: So can you let our viewers know exactly what you do? ’cause I know, I think it’s, it’s pretty badass. Yeah. So, uh, 

[01:13:59] Pat McNamara: talk 

[01:13:59] Lloyd Knight: about the, I think 

[01:14:00] Pat McNamara: one of the lessons I learned being in business for yourself is don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I learned that the hard way couple times. So I have my own business, Tmax Inc.

[01:14:12] Pat McNamara: And I run shooting courses in private, uh, private shooting courses as well. And, but I have a series of other, uh, ventures. I have a online coaching squad, the Pat Matt Keep the Blaze Live coaching squad on Patreon. We just, we do a lot of, uh, life lessons, life coaching, uh, CJ Ortiz and I, you know, he is my business partner in that.

[01:14:36] Pat McNamara: Yeah, yeah. Cj Yeah, he’s great. He’s freaking awesome. And I own a coffee company, invader Coffee. I have books and DVDs. Yeah. I sell fitness programming, combat strength training. I sell my own, uh, brand of resistance bands that get you some bands. There’s more, I don’t know. I can, it’s hard to keep track of some time.

[01:15:01] Lloyd Knight: I know your, your classes that you teach are always sold out. So the, uh, they’re hard to get into. Yep. The, the, um, but let’s talk about the coffee. The coffee business is a super competitive business. So what sets you coffee apart? 

[01:15:15] Pat McNamara: Uh, the quality of it. So most people when they sell coffee, they’re selling a gimmick or a gizmo or GAD bikinis and machine guns, that kind of thing.

[01:15:23] Pat McNamara: You know, and people buy it because a company that does that WhatsApp Yeah. I mean, people buy it. They wanna be a part of the, uh, the brand. You know, the coffee’s crap, but the brand is cool. Yeah, yeah. You know, let’s freaking do this and that and be outrageous. So our coffee, we’re, we’re based in Austin, Texas.

[01:15:43] Pat McNamara: We source from all over the world and we air roast only 1% of the coffee out there you, you buy is air roast. So of course it’s a more, uh, expensive and laborious process, but the bean damn, you harness the, the flavor from the whole bean and it, and it reduces the amount of acidity. So it’s a really, really good coffee.

[01:16:03] Pat McNamara: And one of the things we talk about, you know, when you make a pot of coffee and it goes cold and later on you warm it up and it tastes horrible. Yeah. Yeah. Like invader, because of the lack of acidity and everything still tastes great if you warm up warm wood. Awesome. Yeah. But it’s, it’s a, I mean, not just because it’s mine.

[01:16:21] Pat McNamara: I’m, I mean, it’s, it’s good. It’s, yeah, it’s very, it’s uh, and I don’t even drink that much coffee anymore. I’m like, two cups a day. I’m one cup in the morning and one cup at three in the afternoon. All right. But man, when I drink it, I want it to be quality. 

[01:16:36] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, absolutely. I’m the same way. So how can our viewers find your coffee?

[01:16:41] Lloyd Knight: Invader coffee.com. 

[01:16:42] Pat McNamara: Okay. Invader coffee. Or they could find, viewers can find just about anything that I am affiliated with off of, like if they’re on ig, my TMX Inc. IG site. My link in bio has everything that I’m affiliated with. Everything 

[01:16:59] Lloyd Knight: cool. Yeah. It’s a, uh, yeah. I, I love it. You’re a hustler. Yeah. I consider myself a, a hustler in a good way.

[01:17:06] Lloyd Knight: In the, in, in the best sense. You, you’re not, you’re not resting on your laurels. Right. You’re always looking for the next thing. Have to. Yeah. I, I greatly admire it. A um, another thing I greatly appreciate, I, I’ve, I’m big on LinkedIn. I’ve touched base with you on LinkedIn just a couple times, and including inviting you to this podcast and, and you replied back and a, uh, so I, I appreciate it.

[01:17:32] Lloyd Knight: I’m, I’m the same way. So if you, if you’re, if you’re connecting with me on LinkedIn, I’m gonna get back to you. I, I can’t always help you out. 

[01:17:38] Pat McNamara: Right. 

[01:17:39] Lloyd Knight: Uh, but I, I can definitely owe you a response. Right. And so, Mac, I, I greatly appreciate that. 

[01:17:45] Pat McNamara: You are welcome, my man. 

[01:17:47] Lloyd Knight: I’m gonna, I’m gonna offer you an, an opportunity to a, uh.

[01:17:51] Lloyd Knight: To give, say there’s a veteran out there or service member that’s struggling. Mm-hmm. What advice can you offer? 

[01:17:57] Pat McNamara: Be preemptive, you know, that’s the big one. I think just reach out. Just touch base. Just show up. Just ask a question. Just invite that person out. Don’t stroke and pat ’em on the back. Because here’s the thing, if they’re really struggling and it’s gonna be hard to recognize the sym, the signs and symptoms, you know, there’s a lot of people out there that put on a front, a struggling front.

[01:18:23] Pat McNamara: The guys I know, man, the, the signs, they’re very minuscule. They’re slight, but I could recognize them. Yeah. So you gotta reach out, send a text. Hey, check it up on you buddy. Check. Rebecca does it with, she has a list of people that she’s friends with through me that are like retired military guys, or they’re vets or retired LIOs.

[01:18:47] Pat McNamara: And every once in a while she just said she sends out a, an all call buddy check. 

[01:18:52] Lloyd Knight: Well, that’s awesome. Well, yeah. Tell Rebecca I said thanks for doing that on ’cause that’s something that I preach as well. So, so Mac, appreciate you buddy. Thank, thank you for your service in the military, but most of all, thank you for everything you’re doing now.

[01:19:07] Lloyd Knight: Right on. Especially for the kids that rocks. Yeah. So I, I’m gonna end this how I always end my podcasts. Be safe, be kind. Be remarkable. 

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