Ep. 166 | Todd Opalski | Marine Recon to Delta Force Operator
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2024
- Todd Opalski is a retired Marine infantry officer that served with Marine Recon, Delta Force, and conventional units in multiple war zones. Todd is the owner of Zen Commando and joins us today to discuss his military career and helping veterans.
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00:00:00 Intro
00:11:07 Succeeding in Marine Infantry
00:15:26 Gulf War Deployment
00:18:17 Snipers|Recon
00:28:03 Recon in a Drone World
00:35:05 Ranger School|Range Time
00:46:11 Leaving an Adrenaline Based Job
00:49:16 Becoming a Marine Officer
01:04:16 Invasion of Iraq
01:09:36 Back to Recon as an Officer
01:22:40 Delta Force
01:39:48 Military Standards
01:48:49 Advice to Younger Self
01:53:32 Backpacking the AT and PCT
Crossed paths with him on several deployments in the early to mid 90s. Solid guys. Very humble and always approachable. He was in 2nd Force then. Him and his platoon were always very friendly with the regular infantry guys. Definitely a guy I aspired to emulate.
That's awesome! It's a small Marine Corps
Thank you for your service Lee
He was a Platoon Commander for India Company 3/1 . He did different kind of PT talking to people I know from India company when I was in Lima Company 3/1. Willit who I went to ITB with was in India Company and asked Opalski how to become an officer. Willit went to Recon in 2003 then became an officer then left and went with the Royal Marines in his hometown Liverpool , England .
I am a 60 year old disabled man & veteran dealing with some deep shit and was looking for a motivational video to watch to get my mind right and somehow this video showed up in my feed and just I just watched all 2 plus hours . I am blown away by this amazing man and going to be reaching out to him about his retreats and coaching. Thanks for posting video. It's just what I needed to watch.🙏. PS....you are great interviewer and podcast host.
Wow, that's awesome to hear! I'm glad you stumbled across the page and I appreciate the kind words.
Sir look up the SF's operator that took 27 rounds and survived.....Thank You for your service......
Thanks for your service. It might sound cliche but there are hundreds if not thousands if not millions of fellow Americans that appreciate what you've done. Hopefully the deep shit moves to the side of the road and you're able to live in some peace knowing we give a shit about you. Good luck and thanks!
@@rb1179You can count me as one of the untold MANY who truly appreciate your sacrifice and service and I hope and pray that you're our blessed with better days ahead because you certainly deserve it! God bless you mightily! It's men like you that still make me proud to be an American! 🇺🇸
As a Marine I think Delta potential is the best SMU. The reason is they can recruit the best of the best from any branch. Imagine the top 1% of Force Recon quality being the entire Force. That is what Delta is and then some. Pretty cool.
They're definitely legit. Thanks for checking out the show!
The Army recruit PT program is what it is. Back during my time it was 100% be ready to go to MEPS and then off to OSUT. The program is to help those that want o serve head in the right direction physically to be successful at the next step which is basic training.
It is definitely about the numbers and adjusting to a fatter generation of young adults. We will always have those studs that are ready and don’t need to do the program, BUT there is nothing wrong with the Army INVESTING in these potential recruits where the experience could lead to some of them becoming an operator for a SMU years from now. You never know what experience can flip the switch for someone, so I look at the program as an investment, not a screening process like I went through back in the early 90’s.
If it helps to make better recruits who eventually get in and are productive soldiers, I’m all for it.
Great interview, you asked some excellent questions here.
I really appreciate it! Thanks for the comment 🤙🏼
The part of the podcast at an hour, 43 mins is a great discussion!! I tend to agree with Todd. Been in the Corps for 17 years now and I would say across the board the unrealistic expectations placed upon leaders to be this super father figure for other adults is ridiculous. Like whatever that individual went through that was traumatic before they joined they have to reconcile on their own. It’s one thing to be a good teammate and help out, managing someones childhood trauma on a day to day just to get basic work done is ridiculous. People don’t come ready to play. They sign up and just think things will just happen. No personal accountability.
I'd also say it's a balance. In some cases, this is the first adult male mentorship some of these guys get so it's an important role. In others, guys drag all of their drama into work with them and take up a large part of the leadership's focus.
Thanks for checking out the show!
Good interview
I appreciate it!
Awesome podcast! 🔥
Thanks for listening
I went through parris island 1979 and out of most of the videos I watch this one is very relatable to me really enjoyed it thank you guys . Semper Fi. By the way also from Connecticut👍🏻
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the show! Make sure to subscribe 🤙🏼
Loved hearing about the gun cabinet.....
Corporate leadership still gets to me, how they backstab and care only about self. They don't really appreciate the workers and dont realize they are the lifeblood of the company . Frustrating to see and be a part of, maybe time for a change. Great channel and interview. Semper Fi !!!!
Thanks for the comment! Some corporations definitely only see their people as a line number. Thanks for checking out the show and help spread the word!
Hey man, I love your podcast and your guests have a wide range of experiences that you don't always get to hear within interviews. I wanted to ask if you could make an interview episode on Radio Recon, as I have not heard a whole lot about it lol. I would be so hyped for an episode on that experience, or just more info about what they do and/or their history. The blend of Signals Intel with Recon sounds like a unique experience that few may know about, especially in the context of how that applies to warfare and other capabilities. But anyways, keep up the great content!! One of my favorite podcasts to listen to, and each one is eye opening in one way or another. Much love and respect from the Cali Coast😎🤙🌊
I appreciate it man! I'll post this on Instagram and see if I can get anyone to sign up. Shout out from SD 🤘🏼
@FormerActionGuys Much appreciated!!! Huge thanks for your response, I hope some folks are able to add input on the subject. Also shout out to Stars and Stripes near SD, one of the best taco food trucks this side of the border lol
At 41:00 what they talking about reminds me of mma training in that if you take a couple weeks off you're not going to as sharp.
Although this man is much more dangerous than any mma or ufc fighter.
I think that's pretty common at the highest levels of anything you do. Even a little bit of time off can cause a little bit of rust to form.
Thanks for checking out the show 🤙🏼
Yep I enjoyed watching this
I was at The Citadel with Todd.
Small world!
Lagging recruiting goals: need to avoid the Vietnam era error of recruiting _McNamara's morans_
Morons*
I was with 2nd anglico in the sand box 👌
⚡️
We didn't know each other, but I was a Parris Island pretty much the same time as Opalski, like either exactly, or within a few weeks one way or the other. He's dead right about getting yourself ready. I worked my butt off just to get physically ready to step off the bus. I tend to agree with him. If we start off treating our recruits like babies, we should not expect to ever stop having to treat them like babies. In life, ya gotta want it.
Nope. I was wrong. I graduated a month before he got there. What a fine summer!
The Navy Seals, Army Rangers Special Forces all have entry signing contracts to get you a chance to try out and earn your way onto the teams. I’m positive once they are finished with their training pipeline they have more maturity, experience and training than any NCO that’s been in for a few years already. The pipeline is fast paced and it’s not Rocket science. They all are structured so that the person who makes it through can pull their weight and are put into the right spot on their teams regardless of how long they’ve been in the military as an NCO. It’s arrogant to believe that NCO’s are the only people qualified enough to be able to try out for spec ops. He is right about the visualization though all world/Olympic class and professional athletes do it.
Its a damn shame that the marine corps doesn't get the budget the navy or army does to train their special operators. What the DoD gave to the navy so they could create the seals feels like a misdirected order that was meant for the marines, because the original special ops were the marine raiders during ww2, then came the army rangers. But then when the war ended, the unit was mysteriously disbanded. The navy seals didn't come around til the 60s.
I guess in the early days, the marines were considered to be fanatical enough to not really need special forces. Being in the marines was like being in special forces, but by the late 50s the marines brought back special forces in the form of recon. But ive always felt like recon fell short, not because they werent capable war fighters, but because their mission parameters were vastly different. Fast forward to today, the marines brought back the raiders aka marsoc which essentially replaced recon. But it still doesn't receive the high level of training the way the seals receive or the rangers, even much less than delta operators.
If ever comes a day when the marines are upgraded to the same level as the other branches, the united states military will build a new breed of super elite warrior that it has yet to see. Marine corps values combined with the highest levels of specialized training is a potent mix.
This guy has some good stuff though. Beginning of the interview I thought he was an arrogant azz. But as the interview went on he had some good stuff to say. Great interview overall.
Lol, thanks for giving it a chance. He's had a super interesting life!
Grew up with the rifle cabinet as well. In my brother and my room. A few rifles from Korea and Japan. Father was Army
We never fucked with the gun cabinet and never played video games and when frustrated we played sports and or music
The kids nowadays have no excuse to act like babies and grab guns
Not getting number up because of poor marketing and advertising ( my opinion) . Should have waivers again. Still fail pre screening for Rangers And SF pre qualifications .
Some waivers are good but some can be more detrimental than they're worth
@@FormerActionGuys that’s true .
Great podcast! Interesting career Todd has had... enjoy the time watching this ! Semperfi!
The Sierra is made for horse travel, the Whites are made for human animals.
Thanks for listening that far! I'm going to cut his hiking clip out and post it separately because I think it's an interesting perspective from someone that's done something a lot of people consider. Thanks again!
You talked more then him….
That's kinda my only thought as to how to make your interviews better. No salt, just hopefully constructive criticism (seriously, not throwing any hate ur way Dawg)...I've noticed in a lot of your interviews with guys that don't do interviews very much, it's not really an interview...its a dialogue. Some are 60/40 where you speak and they speak. You'll notice on the biggest interview platforms, it's 90/10 with the person being interviewed talking 90% and the interviewer asking questions to get them to open up. Shawn Ryan is a master at this...getting the most out of his guests.
Again, no hate or shade on you, just a small suggestion to improve them. Let the interviewee talk more, don't interrupt or take over with your own anecdotes.
What you maybe can do is have someone interview you one episode so ppl know your story. That way you don't have to insert it in all the interviews.
Then again, maybe you aren't trying to be like Shawn Ryan, Combat Story, Team House or any other bigger platforms and are just doing your own thing, which is cool too. I can tell u tho, that in a few interviews I wanted to hear more from the person u were interviewing & no offense but your anecdotes or your "well, when I experienced that..." line of banter.
@@SemperFi_EDC_Guy I don't mind the feedback it's just not true on this interview. Has it been true on some? Yes. However, the audience may not realize how hard it is to get some of the interviewees to go into detail about their careers. Sometimes they gloss over something that I know is important or something I think the audience will find interesting and I pull it out by asking a question or relating with my own story. Not all of these guys are used to being interviewed.
I'll admit, it's definitely something I noticed last year on older episodes and something I've been consciously working on this year. Finally, I'm not trying to be any of those other shows even though I like multiple of them.
@@FormerActionGuys nothing but love brother! Semper Fi 👊🏼
if you're going to go to all this effort with your podcasts - can you at least take an extra 30 minutes and add relevant timestamps like most other military podcasts - vigilance elite for example.
I appreciate the feedback and that's something I plan to do in the future. Take into consideration that I plan, record, and edit a 2+ hour interview weekly on top of running two websites full time and doing freelance marketing/graphic design work.
Donating to my Patreon would help free me up to focus more on the podcast only!
patreon.com/formeractionguys
@@FormerActionGuys you’re doing a great job 👏
@@TheMarginKid appreciate it 🙌🏼
@@FormerActionGuys yeah understandable but small details like time stamps take a 6/10 video to an 8/10 instantly IMO. if its worth all the time and effort - may as well go that extra step and do it right.
@@DesireLS I agree, Im much more likely to watch and upvote with timestamps