Jake

You're supposed to be selfish in this moment and take all the time you need.

Yeah, it's a pretty, like when you hold a .50 cal round, you feel like you're holding something pretty crazy.

I go upstairs and wait for a while.

You don't feel like you're holding a bullet.

And that was a moment where I was really proud of myself.

There's heft to it.

It's actually almost impossible to explain how loud they are.

I was actually really excited about that because I had had so many nerves coming up to that.

A minigun is so loud that if you're not wearing hearing protection, it's going to ruin your hearing.

And I was at peace all day.

We always were hearing protection.

I just sat there and meditated, looked at the ocean, talked to the other guys I was waiting with, got to know them a lot better.

Our communications, the way that we communicated through radios and stuff, have built-in hearing protection.

And then when it was finally my time, I headed down.

But if that would slip off while I was shooting, it was a wrap.

Before...

It would ruin my hearing for at least the rest of the day.

I left.

I read a bunch of books, and I've already talked about one that was profound on me.

And obviously, that's taken a toll on me hearing-wise.