What Does a SEAL Team 6 Operator Carry Everyday?

Eric Frohart. John. How's it going? Awesome. So we haven't done one of these in a while, but we used to do this thing called the EDC pocket dump. Okay. Where we talk about what you're carrying right now, maybe what you carried as a SEAL and development group. Yep. On different missions. What are some of your favorite everyday carry items to protect yourself? So generally speaking, um, like at home, um, I'm usually going to be carrying a nine mil of some form. Um, and I'm not super dogmatic on the, you know, on the gun, but, uh, it's been anything from, uh, a Glock 19 to a Glock 43 X to a Springfield to, uh, now a new gun I carry as a Ross Martin. A Ross Martin. Yeah. It's like a, it's a polymer frame striker fired pistol. That's actually made in Dallas, um, by a Marine Corps veteran. Um, pretty cool, uh, cool gun. Um, a lot of, uh, a lot of features, uh, a lot of value and it's made in America. Um, long story short, some form of polymer frame striker fired nine mil. And there's times when it's like more of a full size or, you know, like a smaller one, like a, you know, could be a 43 X or a Springfield Hellcat. How do you differentiate what you're going to take? Kind of depending on what I'm wearing, right. And what can, what I can conceal better. Um, I would like, and I'm not, like I said, I'm not overly dogmatic about like the, you know, the gun, um, type. I do have ones that I'll shoot better. And of course it would be better if I only carried a certain gun all the time. Right. But, um, no matter what, like I will go through, uh, if I'm carrying a certain handgun, part of the routine is before that gun is like loaded and I'm going to carry it for the day. Uh, I'll dry fire, but then I'll do dry draws with the clothing configuration that I have on. Oh, wow. Every day. Almost every day. So the difference, like the crate in Omaha, where I live, um, there's where I might just be wearing a polo or a t-shirt, but then there's times where I might have this on and a, uh, like a fleece, uh, or times where you're wearing a coat, right. Cause of the weather and, uh, just making sure you know how to access it. Um, and I'm generally going to be carrying an appendix, um, usually with, uh, I use holsters. Um, so that kind of addresses the gun situation. Um, and usually, uh, you know, I'll have a backup mag either on me or in the laptop bag. I know it probably should be on me, but sometimes I get a little lazy. Um, that's the first piece. And then a flashlight, typically a surefire flashlight, um, if the gun doesn't have a Uh, and then pocket knife and a fixed blade knife. Both. Yep. No ----. Have you been to a lot of blade courses? It was something we got into towards the, you know, right before I ended up getting medically retired at the end of 09, beginning of 2010. And we were really starting to ramp up on the, on the blade work at that time. But, um, Was there something that. It was kind of, it was a flavor of the, it was a season of learning that, but then it, it kind of like got more ingrained right into things. And, um, you know, one of the guys, he'd said something like, you know, with a, with a fixed blade training, with a fixed blade knife and certain, certain training, like you could just beat any world championship black belt in a life or death fight. Right. And so it was like, ah, well, maybe we should learn this stuff. Yeah. Right. Um, cause we could, we could have these guys come and teach us jujitsu or wrestling or whatever, but in a fair fight, like, you know, just a cage fight, they would beat us. Right. Um, so we had different blade, different blade guys come train us. And I, you know, I know Dom's into it and, uh, really close for another, another really close friend of mine named, uh, Bill rapier. Uh, he gave me. Oh, I've heard of him. So, um. How long does it take to get your bearings on that? Blade work? Yeah. You know, I think it's. I don't know. Think about it. Yeah. It, it's not some people overcomplicate it. Um, but you can get pretty, pretty basic training, right. And over the course of a weekend and then get like a training blade, um, and then have like a Bob dummy and kind of work through different templates. Right on. Um, and you can, you know, you can, I've seen these things. You can get these, like, uh, it's like a piece of wood that's up on a wall and almost has a timer and you can practice like how quickly you can produce a blade and get it into that piece of wood or whatever. What are you, what are the targets on the body? Are they arteries or. Yeah, there's different ones. Um, and again, it's certainly not my specialty. Like, um, but they talk about timers and switches, right. And then different like targets here and the brachial plexus and like, you know, target here is good. If someone has another weapon in their arm is they'll drop it. Right. And then there's different targets all around. It's kind of, uh, and admittedly I haven't like pretty, uh, what's the word. I haven't done it in a while. Um, but I usually, I don't know. I have a fixed blade knife, a pocket knife, and then a gun, a magazine, a flashlight. Um, I know I should have a tourniquet on me. I just can't manage to fit all that stuff on. Like you see some people and they do their pocket dump and I'm like, this is like Batman, right. And the med kit and all that. And like. Do you really carry all that ---- or is this just. I do not carry a tourniquet. That's I, I should, but I, I, I have these funny thing. Like I'll have these photos of like my, my gun, two blades, a flashlight, my wallet, my phone and my can of Zen. Right. And I like take a photo of it. And my wife's just like, how do you carry all that? You gotta have a good bill. Right. Yeah. You gotta have like a, a little stiffer, uh, you know, like a belt with some like plastic in it or whatever. Otherwise it kind of folds over. Yeah. I like that Bianchi, whatever be 36, I think. But, um, do you carry a truck gun ever? I don't. You don't. I mean, I should have like something bigger in the, in the car, you know, the vehicle. I just, I don't know. I mean, it's not that I'm against it. I just, you know, and I, I would say, you know, you live in Omaha, you do get a little complacent. It's not like, like when I was in Denver or whatever, I was a little more worried about things. So they don't have my share of ARs at home, but. I'll bet you do. I carry one when I go through cities, like. That's smart. Atlanta. Do you see that girl that just got ******* stabbed to death again? Yeah. Damn. So it's just, it's not just sad. It just makes me so upset. You know, I got you a present. You want to see it? Yeah. All right. Do I make it up or? Since you, since you don't have any truck guns. Dude. Thought maybe you might like one of these. So. That is the ultimate. Do you know what that is? Oh my gosh, bro. That is sweet. That's the SIG Sauer Rattler. So SBR version with the collapse or the foldable stock. Fixed iron sights. That's one of SIG's new red dot optics up there. It's got a SIG flashlight on there with the thumb activation switch and then. Silencer shop. Oh my gosh. They heard you were coming too. So, so the gun is from my friend Jason over at SIGs. Yeah. And then silencer shopper you were coming. So they wanted to throw a can on there, a suppressor. I love silencer shop. Cause they do all this extra stuff for the second amendment. Yeah, yeah. Um, and, uh, yeah, they were pumped that you were coming on the show. So they wanted to, uh, they wanted to present you with a brand new 300 blackout truck gun. Bro. Uh, well, first of all, thank you to you. Uh, thank you SIG and silencer shop. That is, that is fricking amazing. How does this work? You got to, uh, push the top, push the top thing down this thing down. Yeah. Oh, I see it, dude. That suppressor is illegal in Nebraska, right? Yeah. Cool. I thought so. Did you use 300 blackout at dev group at all? Uh, it was, they were starting to a little bit. Really? Um, but then I, I, I always, um, he was just asking me this. I always ran a four 16, um, a P two, two six before they were switching. And then some of the, like some of the dog handlers and maybe EOD guys were running the, um, what was it? The MP seven, right? The little, um, and then when I did recce work and sniper work, you know, once in a while, uh, what was it? The four 17, but that thing was just big and loud. So most of the time for 16. Right on. Yeah. Right on. This is fricking amazing. Thank you. You're welcome brother. It's going to look great in your truck. Oh my gosh. That is so cool. Well, should I just put it right here? Yeah. Just put it over there. Why did they, why did they start looking at 300 blackout? I just started shooting 300 black. I know I, well, I think I should say, I don't think we were operating with it, but we were always testing new stuff. You know, it might be something there was always being tested and maybe not fielded, you know what I mean? Like development, like they're messing around with stuff. So no, when I was there, it was still, it was still, you know, five, five, six, seven, six, two, um, nine mil. I, I had, uh, for sniper work. I had a, you know, seven, six, two, five, five, six, 300 wind mag, uh, three 38. The PUA. Oh, damn. You guys have three 38. Had a lapua accuracy international. Um, when I was a sniper at team five, of course we had a 50 Cal, uh, but I didn't use that at that group at all. Yeah. You know, you had brought up, if you don't mind, if you don't want to say at that school, but you know, a lot of people, we get a ton of emails about what people's daughters should be carrying when they go to school. Right. And we just had an offline conversation about that. So could you, what, what have you gotten your daughter? Who's getting ready to go to school. So college. Yeah, I, I would say, um, having, having tools, right. And while I'll use that word interchangeably with weapons, right. Having some tools is, is important. Like, and nothing, nothing replaces like, you know, having some skill. Right. And having, uh, sometimes you gotta upgrade software before you buy hardware. Right. But having some hardware it's helpful. And, um, I would start before buying any, any, you know, to answer your question specifically, having some pepper spray, having a flashlight. To me, a flashlight is like the best of all the tools. Um, cause you have that. Well, if I have like a, like, let's say the, the surefire flashlight I'm normally carrying in my back pocket, or my daughter could have it in a purse or whatever. And I can, I can pull it up and temporarily blind you right. Or use it to strike. Right. Or I can just look over there and be like, if someone's coming towards me, I can acknowledge they're coming. And a lot of times, you know, criminals are looking for an easier mark. Right. So I think a flashlight is really like a very utilitarian could, and it could be like, I'm stuck on the side of the road. I need help. Right. Or it could be, uh, someone's coming at you and you can get that light up and just blind them for a second and get off the X. Or I can blind them and then strike them in the face. Right. Cause it's an aluminum, you know, it's got a bezel in front of it. So pepper spray is great. A flashlight's great. Even like a defense pin, right. One of those aluminum pins. And they're kind of the same motion. Like whether it's a flashlight or a pin. Right. And then I get the mace out. Like you just have this very, um, you have a lot of economy emotion there and like not a lot to recall in a moment of consequence. Mm-hmm. Right. And of course it'd be great. Like if your daughter was like some jujitsu, black belt and all the different things, but like, I, you know, they're not, they're not all going to do that. Yeah. Right. And even, you know, you can have like world-class martial art, a woman who's a world-class martial artist that would have no chance against some 250 pound guy who is just whatever, strong and crazy or whatever. Yeah. So having some tools, right. Um, like I can't give her a truck gun or, uh, even just a, you know, little, like I've as well. Right. Like can't like, she can't really have that in school. Yep. Um, and I would say there are certain times like having a, having a blade is a good thing. She just has to know her surroundings and where she can, you know, where she can have that and where she can't. Right. Um, and if you give someone like a blade for self-defense, they have to understand like, Hey, this is a lethal tool. You have to understand the implications. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. So, but like very basic barrier entry, like pepper spray, pepper spray, flashlight and defense pin next step, maybe a blade of some kind along with some training. So right on, right on. How was, uh, she pretty receptive to it or. Yeah. Like dad, I don't need this ----. She's got a pretty good head on her shoulders. Good to hear. Now she's, she's certainly not going to go like, you know, five days a week, go to martial arts class. So we're just doing like, Hey, let's just do what we can. Cool. You know what I mean? Cool. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Let's get into the interview. Yeah. 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