Coleman Ruiz

He knew my this is back to my Uncle Jim who introduced he and my Uncle Jim were buddies.

And I met him.

He's since passed away.

I met Colonel Ripley when I was a plebe at the Naval Academy.

I work with one of his sons now, friend, teammate, mentor.

He's a great guy.

Colonel Ripley, he's a legend.

Like, this guy's a Navy cross winner.

Should have won the Congressional Medal of Honor by all accounts.

If you read the book, The Bridge at Dawn High, you are going to have –

No ability to understand why he's not dead.

And these are the kind of people you meet.

So back to the patriotism, you know, thing.

By the time I was in the teams, I knew where I was sort of in this ecosystem.

Admittedly, though, what I didn't really have, Andrew, because I mean, I love the country, of course, but it wasn't... Again, I didn't grow up with a dad who was like, you know, this was always in our house or...

It just wasn't that big of a thing.

This came for me after 9-11, obviously.

But yes, the patriotism and the importance of the job is there.

But when I remember checking into SEAL Team 3, what emerged very quickly for me, because we had Vietnam vets in the training cell at SEAL Team 3 and just some amazing people, what I realized right away was, okay, playtime is completely over.

And that was very useful, like early lesson.