Joe Rogan Experience #652 — Ricky Schroder Transcript

Transcript

0:00 And we're live. What's up, Rick? time I was over your house and I I was, first of all, I was really impressed. a journalist a camera guy that was you know there to tell a story that was probably negative That's, that's pretty intense, man. So I was always looking for an opportunity where I could sort of experience 13 years. We've spent a lot of money there. We've lost a lot of people there. We've had a lot of

4:07 I mean, that's a 30-minute, it's not truly a reality show, right? I mean, it's a long form commercial, Joe, starting strong. They're the final judge and jury on those decisions when you have, you know, a creative Afghanistan by February by March and I brought three camera guys with me I brought I hired a and names and we were following them from the air and looking for opportunities to shoot a

6:41 Yeah. You know, the technology that I saw and experienced with the Army and the way that they can, you know, fight and conduct war and gather intelligence and stuff was phenomenal. was really the first time that they had experienced that, they use kids a lot for suicide bombers. That term, 72 virgins, apparently, I looked it up. Yeah. What does that mean?

10:16 such a long, um, extended stay? Yeah. So I did have second thoughts, um, before I went, you know, But I went. man paramilitary police force in Kabul, heroin industry thriving, black market for weapons And so the Taliban wanted You know, you just you just because I couldn't live with myself if I didn't our own, not our allies, They don't like cameras pointed at them. They don't like you to talk to women.

14:31 Even though may not nothing may happen But just the potential that something's gonna happen is kind of exhausting. Yeah, I can only imagine especially knowing that some of these of people also surrounded by all these Afghan security forces and then also having the you know, on a patrol walking through a village and there's a bunch of guys around and they all got shovels and, you know, but you know, some of them are Taliban,

16:34 He might be a farmer and the guy next to him might be Taliban. So what is the conflict? It's very different people. Indian businessmen all over Kabul and Pakistan you know sort of is at odds Well, here's the good news. Poppy production exploded and And then they can trade it like gold or silver. What is it like to travel around that city? Mud village.

21:49 And what's their primary source of food there? would just taste like sugar they were so sweet nothing sour about them and so it's a very like And he was doing it in a way that John McCain thought was very ignorant of the environment. like literally several dozen TV stations have sprung up. Um, several hundred radio stations the downtown, the police department's fuel reservoirs in Kabul.

25:16 So you'll go to an outpost and you'll see vehicles that look fairly well, Well, we don't have a fan belt. Wow, that is bananas. Is there a sense of helplessness at all? Mud huts I mean it seems would you possibly get the Internet to these people in these mud huts? So many good things have happened in 13 years in that place. And so that, what was interesting was, you know,

28:38 doesn't abandon this country because if they don't have the money to pay their army and pay their soldiers, is that we will completely abandon them and Taliban will come back into power. you know, you either got to, you know, commit and do it, And Taliban wouldn't give al-Qaeda over. you know, and then leave. And that money involved, I mean, especially when Dick Cheney was the vice president. Of course, he was the former CEO of Halliburton.

32:58 We paid for them to build it. The soldiers ain't getting paid a lot of money. You don't know anybody. Nobody's going to carry your water nobody's anywhere, they said, then, you know, they may kill me. Do they say, we're leaving, come with us? And so all of the leadership of the battalion, 800 guys, but just the leadership would assemble, driven by intelligence. You don't just go somewhere on the hopes you go there because

38:04 with because all these operations we were on were operations afghans and army mixed and so you meet for any of you that may have it direct tv the ceo mike white really quick um i cold emailed him No, we didn't put any dead ends in. When you're dealing with your life and the life of your teammates, the stakes are so high. They will if they have to. on, on cards and we would back every night, have to back up our media to the hard drives,

41:44 Never strong. you're dealing with hundreds of I mean, the reason to do it is to do it justice, to do it right, to show the way it is, to You go to that because you want, because you feel that it's important for the world to know who we are as a nation, And so I wanted to showcase that. risk it all. You know, they're willing to give everything to fight the evil of our generation,

45:14 We go to try to kill them, the enemy. safely guarded, protected in, you know, our country. What do you And they would thank America's parents for sending sons and daughters here to die for us, to fix us, to help us. Well, I can tell you, if you watch the fighting season, That's hard for people to swallow. sitting in a room somewhere with like an Xbox controller, nowhere near

48:54 I mean, they can be remote. There has to be some delay. I mean, there's an internet ping. because it has to be sort of a higher-level weapon system to get the drone to attack the enemy behind the rock as the ground force commander. collateral damage And so there's like a sonic boom. Let's see, you know, if there's any left. fight. I said, why am I doing it? And I questioned, why am I doing it? And should I go? And then I

53:17 guy letting them and these guys came up to him and after you know cat madams And I'm holding a camera. I couldn't shake their hand their hand tried to shake other people's hands some people shook their hands they those guys would have never walked out of there. And they were trying to figure out why are we doing this? This is a tough time for America.

55:47 I agree. I agree. the Geneva Convention in the first place so even though like what you saw seems Wow. who lives there and i had to disembed him from the u.s army because he was going on a mission the single largest loss of life of US service members, 38 died in a Chinook that was shot express this to him yeah I mean Jake Jake knows Jake Jake knew Jake's did you tell him that that

59:54 Sounds like a nutty dude. all the time does he learn yearn for a normal life no he actually learns for the next gunfight There was four plus me. We didn't have any our guys killed there while we were with them seeing it on the internet and being there live when it all comes home and you realize because in order for their prophecies to come true, and debated back and forth in America when people start using the term Islamophobia.

1:04:17 because he wants necessarily to fight jihad. It's the only way to get someone to sacrifice their own life. Mm-hmm. They use the promise of virgins and that's a powerful of being a suicide bomber oh yeah especially when some of the suicide bombers are the the enemy and it was it was just so hard watch, so hard to look at these young kids that were being

1:07:25 that's been sort of embedded into their brain it's that's popping up the worldwide you know yeah there's millions of people there that don't want Taliban rule, and they're active and vocal about it. Here's a story. So this guy was telling me, he was an Afghan and he was talking to me about how he knew of a story where one It's part of this cultural thing.

1:09:51 the door they killed him so as soon as he left as soon as he said he was leaving yeah because That's only, again, that would only take place in a situation where religion was involved, I would think. How old are these boys? Or even less than that. this defined like when you're you're around these people and you see these Women are for breeding boys are for pleasure is what statement that they say sometimes some guys some Afghans and

1:13:20 She didn't like him charging for trinkets that he was selling to people. But I was so glad when I got off the plane, I almost kissed the dirty gutter in LAX. Because of all the problems we have here, it is such an amazing place when you come from a place like that. You just got in a car accident. About frivolous things in the big picture is because in a lot of ways, that was you.

1:15:48 Right, but you were rich as fuck when you were a little kid. Nobody's given it That is one of the most fucked up Hollywood actor stories that anybody ever told me. Talking about my dead grandmother. you lived a life of privilege, hard not being on softball little league team's hard all sorts of things were hard experiencing firefights on a daily basis almost.

1:18:52 really um what was the word that i'd read but comprehensive i think was the way they were No clue really felt like I was making a difference like like educating people about the art of war how How do you call in the air weapons teams, the Apaches? Because what it seems to me, as your friend, is that you just have to have something that excites you.

1:22:06 do something on dogs, you know, and smile a little more, you know, for a little less intense. Fourth of July in Alaska, by the way, is off the hook. You have the freedom to to make those decisions you know you have the freedom to decide what you Germany, to the Rhine River. And I think I was the only person he ever told stories to. And you know how they would paint their face black and

1:25:17 And what we, you know, and the Army that defends it. to be over there it's not like you just send people over there film it yeah and then come back If you're looking for dirt. They had people come from newspapers for three days, two days, five days, you know, go to You will show them. Right. I would have apprehension about that. I'm like, well, honey, you want me to work with people, collaborate with people.

1:29:33 Because some of the guys were young, the camera guys, not married. they didn't have to learn all 600 hours of footage and so then each story producing team and just sort of acquire the footage. You know, I told the Army I was going to get it out. What would you rather have had? How much time would you rather have had? There's so much story there. Thank you for showing us part of his life.

1:32:39 Yeah, you know what? is teaching the next generation. possible so they take those kids home and you can see it that's why they train And where would we be without them? not Mullen, one of the chairmen said, you, everybody that has watched the fighting season or will watch it. It is available right now. We have a fighting season YouTube channel and Fighting Season Facebook channel.

1:35:41 I'm going to watch it tonight. That's the end of this.