Episode 22 with Ryan Parrot (Former Navy Seal and Founder of Sons Of The Flag)

Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up, and
what didyour parents do?  So, I grew up in Detroit, Michigan,
actually in the heart of Detroit. My dad was injournalism and
marketing; he worked for multiple companies from CompuwareFortune
500 to EDS, and then he got into a real estate, which he currently
stilldoes. And my mother has worked in medicine for the last
30-plus years, workingin oncology and then followed by nephrology.
My parents have been go-getters their whole life. I grew up in
Detroitand it’s been a great life. My parents divorced when I was
five years old but theyparented me well together and managed to
keep the divorce from hurting therelationship for the family, so it
was great. I love my parents dearly, and theygave me everything I
needed to survive in life, so super grateful.It’s kind of how it
went, just moved off outside of Detroit to the suburbs andthen
moved into an area called Clinton Township Michigan, or Macomb
County,where I ended up finishing up school high school there at
Chippewa Valley HighSchool. And that's where I was influenced by a
teacher into the service.   So, tell me a little bit about
yourself, and how long have you served behind the frontline for,
and in what capacity in the Navy SEALs? Let’s see, a little
bit about myself. I played hockey growing up I always lovedsports,
I love team sports. I've always been the guy that had a nickname;
theyused to call me Purp or Pond Rocket Parrot in hockey. Because
in Michigan weplay a lot of pond hockey outside as well
as inside. And then I went to Perrote, andthe French men don’t know
where that came from. And then I went to in theSoup in the SEAL
Teams, and then it’s been Birdman ever since. But,
growing up in Michigan, I love Michigan. I think that it’s a place
thateverybody needs to visit. People don't really get a good idea
Michigan, theythink it's Detroit, they think it's a
dangerous place, and it's all city, and it’s not. It's a gorgeous
place, the north part of Michigan is beautiful, gorgeous lakes, you
can't get enough water there. It's a place that you need to see,
the fall time you get change of colors everywhere and I
love it, that's my home. Idon't consider Texas my home I consider
Michigan my home, will always be. I served eight years in the
military, all of that in the SEAL Teams if not in training,but all
in Naval Special Warfare. I think I did three months outside of
NavalSpecial Warfare in the beginning through boot camp and then my
A school, andthen after that it was all with the Naval Special
Warfare Command. So, I wentthrough BUD/S class 245, 246. After
the program, I went to SEAL Team 7, and Iserved for six
years at SEAL Team 7. I was in Alpha platoon, two platoons, I went
to Foxtrot platoon, and then I wentover to Advanced Training
Command as an instructor for just under a yearbefore I got out of
service. Eight years in San Diego, actually in Coronado. It
waswonderful, it was like an unbelievable experience. We were going
out a lot andwould come back home, I would come back to my house in
San Diego and thinkit was a vacation home. So it's super cool. I
was blessed. You get everything you can possibly imagine from the
military, youget GI Bill, college tuition, you get friends that
will last a lifetime, you get to doepic things, and you get to do
this all in the name of protecting the nation. Foranybody who’s
messing around with the idea of wanting to join the military, I
saydon't hesitate, do it. And anybody who doesn't know anything
about the militaryI think they should go and do some more research
and learn about it because it'sincredible. It was wonderful for me;
it was everything I needed. Served eightyears and then I decided to
move out to the Dallas Texas to pick a job and trynew things.
  How was school for you, and what made you become a Navy
SEAL?  School for me was difficult, I just was not entertained
by teaching, teachers, anykind of academics, it was all boring to
me. I always excelled in the physic