You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations Military Nails, and straight talk with the guys in the community.

Hey, what's up? Welcome back to another episode of Software Radio. Those that you are watching already see that I have my guest on.

And it is Mike Leif, SEAL team for Operator, United States Navy, Drifter in Life. I like to see those bumper stickers out there on the road that say not all who wander our loss. Mike, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me all, Brad. I appreciate it. It's awesome to be on here.

Yeah, we're happy to have you. You know, Brandon's like, yo, dial him up. Let's get him. And I was like, let's get it.

And what we're going to talk about is really what was it that drove you to join the SEALs? You know, how old were you and was it like a high school?

Like, tell me a little bit about what took you from, boom.

It's kind of a funny story. So I mean, everyone's story that gets to the SEAL teams are any special operations units pretty unique.

But when I asked to go back to when I was in grade school. So I was in fifth grade. I got in trouble for whatever reason I was always getting in trouble.

I got grounded and I wasn't allowed to watch TV. I mean, this is before iPads and all that shit. So it was like, all I had was TV. So my mom was like, read a book.

And I said, I don't want to read a book. And she took me to, it was Barnes and Noble. And I walked in and I went over to the military section. And right away, there was a, there was a book there, a guy all painted up in camouflage hiding in the jungle.

And there's a big gold tried in on it. I had no idea what Navy SEALs were at the time. But I just love the comfort looked cool shit. So I was like, it was about Vietnam frogs.

You know, Frogman and Vietnam, it was a lot of SEAL team one stories. If I remember right. And I was hooked. And then like within months, the movie with Charlie Sheen came out Navy SEALs. And I was like, yeah, I was like, don't I'm doing this. And so then in sixth grade in my school district, you graduated sixth grade and went to middle school.

We did like a graduation ceremony. We had a yearbook. And in a yearbook, it asked, in 20 years, I will be dot, dot, dot. And like every kid in my class wrote, they're going to be, I grew up in Philly. So everyone was going to be like playing for the sixers, the Eagles, the Philly.

I wrote, I'm going to be United States Navy SEAL working on top secret missions. And I fully forgot that I did that. And when I graduated SEAL training, one of my buddies, his mom was like, they're moving and they clean out the house. And she came across your book.

She was like reading the stories about all the kids we grew up with. And she was laughing. And she was like, Holy shit, Mike's actually doing this. And they gave the yearbook to my dad who gave it to me at graduation. And I was like, damn, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, you're accomplishing, you know, your youthful goals for subconsciously, right? That book just inspired you.

I was like, so high school, I was kind of a lost cause just ended up. I was a total knucklehead went to college and I wasn't some, I wasn't doing awesome. Let's just say I was just worried.

I'm having a good time trying to figure out life, selling some wild oats. And then 9-11 happened. And then like shortly after that, I was just like, this is what I got to do.

And then about a year after 9-11, it took me a little while to get through the recruiting process because I had some legal troubles growing up. But then I finally got into the Navy and went to the fleet for a little bit then ended up with buds.

What was your need of the Navy at first when you before you got to buds? Like, you know, we always hear about the romance of buds. What was it that you did prior to that?

Yeah, so at the time this, you know, I was going back to like 2002, 2003, the Navy, you could get a seal challenge contract, but the seal Navy Seals didn't have their own rating. Like eventually they had their own rating or a call like special SO's special operators.

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