👍 Like this video to support to show appreciation for Mick and/or Urban Valor. 🗣️ Comment your support or ask any questions. Sometimes, our interviewees respond, and we at Urban Valor will do our best to respond as well! ✅ SUBSCRIBE to support Urban Valor and so you NEVER miss a weekly episode of our veteran stories. New stories every Sunday!
We need more of these. I love the infantry, soldier/spec ops testimonies, but this is awesome. Such a different perspective! I’ve always wondered about the money and logistics of war
Been listening to Urban Valor interviews all week. Each and every one of these men are heros. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your services.
Love Mick Simonelli's story. This a man who is not afraid to speak out, who was no less brave than any of our front-line commanders. The Army lost a good man when he left the service.
An epic one, definitely worth watching end to end. The fusion of innovation, politics, military, corporate world, sense of humor, and sense of humanity... altogether makes it a great one. If bureaucracy was a snake, Mick would have been the most daring snake eater, he is by far an innovation Ranger!
@@jastebro9827 you should read Fool’s errand by Scott Horton it is about the Afghanistan war. Enough already is also an amazing book by Scott Horton. I’m waiting for him to release his new book.
Dude needs to be on Shawn Ryan as well. Thank y’all both for your service. My grandpa retired in the early 80s Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force. I’m always interested in hearing any Lt Co. perspective in the GWOT
And companies like Halliburton made billions(Dick Cheney).. The industrial complex was the only winner in all of this. Thank you for your dedicated service Colonel and thank you Urban Valor for another great video
The day before the "plane" hit the Pentagon, Rumsfeld held a press conference to let everyone know that BILLIONS of dollars were unaccounted for but was being searched for. When the missile hit the building, I mean "plane," it destroyed the room that was supporting the money search. As a result, that money was never found. Isn't that an amazing coincidence. Pretty wowzers.
His St. Thomas Aquinas quote I think was actually from St. Augustine of Hippo. Doesn’t matter, everyone should look into both of those Saints! Great interview.
WOW!!! I can't imagine the crazy amounts of money many unscrupulous people made during the war.. Also the amount "treasure" still buried/hidden there..
This is actually why DEI is important, if there was someone that knew about Afghan culture in the decision chain we could have saved trillions knowing these things ahead of time.
@@killerdrgn i'm just a gunsmith in SE Texas but if you have a fingernails worth of common sense you know that a dirt farmer or a sheep herder is going to want what gets him the most prestige in his village. Sheep, goats, camels, horses, wives. he hasn't got ANYWHERE to spend money.
Wow this was an awesome episode! I really enjoyed it. Funny thing, I quite literally just posted a comment on a different TH-cam video a couple days ago talking about LEAN manufacturing (1:31:50) ("International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine channel" video titled "The Bloodiest Battle of the Chosen Company | Pt.2" which YOU should definitely check out for anyone interested because it is perhaps some of the most insane modern combat footage I have EVER SEEN!), and the correlations between that and the military/war and how I believe that if it was incorporated into the military or team guys in particular it would be greatly beneficial in so many ways...! The following is just a portion of that comment I am referencing: " There is something called LEAN in the manufacturing business mostly found in factory work and it is defined as the following: (Lean is defined as a set of management practices to improve efficiency and effectiveness by eliminating waste. The core principle of lean is to reduce and eliminate non-value adding activities and waste.) It is further categorized into the 5 following principles: (1. Defining Value, 2. Value stream mapping, 3. Creating flow, 4. Establishing pull, 5. Continuous Improvement) with the 8 major wastes being the following: (1. Defects, 2. Overproduction, 3. Waiting, 4. Non-utilized talent, 5. Transportation, 6. Inventory, 7. Motion, 8. Extra-processing) There is also something called 2 second LEAN as well which basically means to fix what bugs you by shaving off 2 seconds everyday on a daily task you already do and that you are responsible for conducting in your line of work. The reason I bring this up is because if people applied this to combat I REALLY feel like these principles would be greatly beneficial to any team deployed in the field by reducing the time it takes to do anything better or faster. I would encourage any and every soldier to find the correlational between the two, that being LEAN manufacturing and war cause at the end of the day your there to manufacture death. Just fruit for thought. Cheer's Boy'z, Slava Ukraine!" Truly ironic! Glad to see the US Army agrees. I am a former 19 Delta Cav Scout and I had know idea but then again I was in around 2008 so I'm unsure if they were applying it at the time.
@@zidanesousa18- while disparaging the DoD for not passing an audit in at least 40 years. That said, 'have to break some eggs to make an omelette' might just apply here... essence of SNAFU... sucks to be a part of it - or paying for it. At the very least it's over the top... or over the target.
It was for the people of afghanistan, so they have an army, and cannot terrorize u.s no more, wheres the part that you d9nt understand, you were attack by terrorist, hiding in afghanistan, so that it wont happen again in the u.s, cut off the terrorist outside., but biden let them go.
Very interesting. I saw this kind of stuff in Iraq also. I never thought about the idea that there aren't any Afghan war brides .... but makes you think.
Being a senior engineering project manager I can relate to the sickening sub-optimization (or status quo if you will). In big organizations (even private) they're there. Makes me sick the the guts and genuinely angry. It actually made me somewhat political because we (the inventors, or perhaps "idealists") need to adjust, rework, strategize and beat those popes on their own turf. But yeah, it's basic instincts those dinosaurs are working with and it helps understanding micro-macro groups and leadership psychology. Thanks for sharing.
@@candinmuniz3225yep, it sucks but you either play by TH-cam’s rules or you may aswell not bother uploading anymore. If you even swear in the first 1 minute of a video I’m pretty sure you’ll get demonised just off that, could be wrong but I know it’s definitely not something TH-cam likes at all.
This is basically a big trauma dump lol but ranks for your service bro, said by an Iraq vet and a guy who’s dad was in Afghanistan same time as him. We must learn from these guys so this kind of travesty never happens again.
@@brettlarson3801 in what way would serving an Afghanistan or Iraq be serving the American people they lie to our troops about Iraq and Afghanistan. They take people who wanted to defend America lie to them and use them to make America less safe.
Idk what happened from a few days ago but i started this podcast and there were cuss words amd the word kill was alowed to be said. Now Its bleeped out? You cant have a military podcast and they cant say kill? Thats gonna loose me.. sorry
The West made a significant error in assuming they could implement changes in Afghanistan. This resulted in 20 years of futile fighting, leading to the loss of US/NATO and allied soldiers, only to return to the initial situation with the Taliban back in power and their harsh rule nearly restored. The West (US/EU/Western nations and allies) must recognize that it is impossible to alter something that is ingrained in the very essence of existence, culture, and habits; it simply does not work, and the recent Western failure in Afghanistan is proof of that. The West cannot fight for women's rights in that society; they must reach that conclusion and fight for it themselves. The same applies to other areas of progress, such as education, agriculture, and urban development. If the Afghans themselves do not want to embrace change and continue their current way of life, the West has done nothing but waste money and fuel corruption, local tribal lords, and warlords, as well as inadvertently funding the terrorism they aimed to combat. It has been a total failure on behalf of the US, EU, NATO, and Western powers and allies.
Didn't they also leave tons and tons of military equipment behind?? The Taliban was parading all this equipment they apparently obtained when the US evacuated. It seems in essence, arming their enemies?
@@DarkOmenX you’re just making the mistake of believing them when they tell you they have the best of intentions. do you actually think they thought there was WMDs and Iraq other than the defunct non-usable ones that the United States and Britton supplied to them that they tried to cover up resulting in American soldiers being injured by them and then the VA trying to deny them, their rightful benefits.
@@Billfye123 they did it with the help of the Saudi Arabian government. United States government covered up Saudi Arabia’s involvement and blamed it on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Could've also been because we were actively destroying their country and society, idk maybe we shouldn't have treated traditional Muslim people as though they would think like soho valley chick's.
@1stGenRex Afghan means nothing. It's a made up term referring to a made up country. It doesn't represent any race or culture, this thread is illustrative of why Americans got fucked in Afghanistan.
1:36:09 thank you for your sacrifice, hard work, dedication to 🇺🇸EVEN under / amongst communist, socialist leadership, 20 years & 5seconds… 🇺🇸SEMPER FI!
@@BiggusDickus-s5q so you appreciate that he served communist/socialist leadership? You do know the United States Allied Al-Qaeda again after 911. Specifically in Yemen Al-Qaeda officially joined the UAE forces were the ground forces while the United States was the Air Force. Look at Syria.
Thank u For your service jason bourne ..... I guy and translator walk around out side the gates with a million dollars ????????? Was this before zero dark thirty ....... ?
You know, out of all of the videos/interviews ive watched over the years from this channel, and ones similar (all being really great interviews and were enjoyable from beginning to the end), but this one....this one was interestingly and intriguingly one that i honestly think was a good listen/watch and although i feel there would be possibly a few who may not feel the same as i do about this one, but i think this would place pretty high up there on my list. I really liked his honesty and his ability to be humble and not seem like he had to make himself seem like this big bad ass tough guy super soldier and instead was straight up honest about himself as he was coming up through his beginning/training of his time in the military. To things like knowing he wasnt really confident in himself in a sense to want to go to ranger school. I feel like its not a very common thing to have that be so easily/honestly talked about with many of us men. I think he made the right choices with turning ranger selection down etc anyways ive rambled on far too long
And you and the other prior military officers are the reason USAA is garbage. They don’t understand the little guy because they are up in the crystal palace. I’ve had Usaa for 15 years and will be changing soon because they are just terrible. I’ve had a house fire, a fault and a no fault accident with injury over the past five years and Usaa has made the whole experience so much worse and more stressful. In and out of the military you may see the big picture in things and are able to innovate but if it doesn’t help the little guy then that’s stuff doesn’t matter.
👍 Like this video to support to show appreciation for Mick and/or Urban Valor.
🗣️ Comment your support or ask any questions. Sometimes, our interviewees respond, and we at Urban Valor will do our best to respond as well!
✅ SUBSCRIBE to support Urban Valor and so you NEVER miss a weekly episode of our veteran stories. New stories every Sunday!
We need more of these. I love the infantry, soldier/spec ops testimonies, but this is awesome. Such a different perspective! I’ve always wondered about the money and logistics of war
Been listening to Urban Valor interviews all week. Each and every one of these men are heros. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your services.
Thanks for listening
Love Mick Simonelli's story. This a man who is not afraid to speak out, who was no less brave than any of our front-line commanders. The Army lost a good man when he left the service.
After my Army experience, I believe every word.
Gotta Respect the Man's candour.
I wish we had more people with this level of self awareness and intelligence.
An epic one, definitely worth watching end to end. The fusion of innovation, politics, military, corporate world, sense of humor, and sense of humanity... altogether makes it a great one. If bureaucracy was a snake, Mick would have been the most daring snake eater, he is by far an innovation Ranger!
Appreciate the effort. Glad you came home.
Much appreciated
Man I love these. ANOTHER magical guests. GOD BLESS AMERICA 🇺🇸
🤙🏼🇺🇸👊🏼🙏
That story about the uniforms and stamps was great.
Thanks for sharing your story Mick!
This will be a nice addition to when someone decides to create a comprehensive Afghanistan war documentary.
@@jastebro9827 you should read Fool’s errand by Scott Horton it is about the Afghanistan war. Enough already is also an amazing book by Scott Horton. I’m waiting for him to release his new book.
Learned alot by just listening to the trajectory of his experience
Dude needs to be on Shawn Ryan as well. Thank y’all both for your service. My grandpa retired in the early 80s Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force. I’m always interested in hearing any Lt Co. perspective in the GWOT
Very mature of this man to not be comfortable making all the decisions, having all the power.
Excellent interview, thank you.
Thank you for listening 🤙🏼
The damage at the pentagon was EXACTLY like the damage from a Bunker Buster.
Thank you for your service
And companies like Halliburton made billions(Dick Cheney).. The industrial complex was the only winner in all of this. Thank you for your dedicated service Colonel and thank you Urban Valor for another great video
Don't disagree, let's not limit to Cheney. It was very bipartisan.
It was chosen people
Awesome interview
Appreciate your listening
You're a Patriot, Thank you
What makes him a patriot?
@GLuck-r9e go away
@@xymoriintus am I upsetting your safe space snowflake? If this is a safe place for snowflakes then I’ll go away.
From West warwick here and what a story
I wonder why we are in 35 TRILLION in debt smh. Our federal government is awful.
Is it awful or awfully good at doing exactly what it was designed to do?
@@coreyfernandez5512 Well yea, both.
This story is a real different experience from the usual I've listened to, an amazing insite tothe business behind the scenes
The day before the "plane" hit the Pentagon, Rumsfeld held a press conference to let everyone know that BILLIONS of dollars were unaccounted for but was being searched for. When the missile hit the building, I mean "plane," it destroyed the room that was supporting the money search. As a result, that money was never found. Isn't that an amazing coincidence. Pretty wowzers.
Very interesting, genuine guy
Wow. What an incredible story.
His St. Thomas Aquinas quote I think was actually from St. Augustine of Hippo. Doesn’t matter, everyone should look into both of those Saints! Great interview.
💯💯💯
This was so nteresting listening to him
David Sterling would be Proud of You. Thanks for your Service
401 Pride!! Love to see a fellow Providence native here.
WOW!!! I can't imagine the crazy amounts of money many unscrupulous people made during the war..
Also the amount "treasure" still buried/hidden there..
life is a learning experience, We all earn from mistakes, but best to learn from the mistakes of others.
you could have spent about a million dollars on a bunch of sheep, goats and horses and had them all paid off.
This is actually why DEI is important, if there was someone that knew about Afghan culture in the decision chain we could have saved trillions knowing these things ahead of time.
@@killerdrgn i'm just a gunsmith in SE Texas but if you have a fingernails worth of common sense you know that a dirt farmer or a sheep herder is going to want what gets him the most prestige in his village. Sheep, goats, camels, horses, wives. he hasn't got ANYWHERE to spend money.
Wow this was an awesome episode! I really enjoyed it. Funny thing, I quite literally just posted a comment on a different TH-cam video a couple days ago talking about LEAN manufacturing (1:31:50) ("International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine channel" video titled "The Bloodiest Battle of the Chosen Company | Pt.2" which YOU should definitely check out for anyone interested because it is perhaps some of the most insane modern combat footage I have EVER SEEN!), and the correlations between that and the military/war and how I believe that if it was incorporated into the military or team guys in particular it would be greatly beneficial in so many ways...! The following is just a portion of that comment I am referencing:
" There is something called LEAN in the manufacturing business mostly found in factory work and it is defined as the following: (Lean is defined as a set of management practices to improve efficiency and effectiveness by eliminating waste. The core principle of lean is to reduce and eliminate non-value adding activities and waste.) It is further categorized into the 5 following principles: (1. Defining Value, 2. Value stream mapping, 3. Creating flow, 4. Establishing pull, 5. Continuous Improvement) with the 8 major wastes being the following: (1. Defects, 2. Overproduction, 3. Waiting, 4. Non-utilized talent, 5. Transportation, 6. Inventory, 7. Motion, 8. Extra-processing) There is also something called 2 second LEAN as well which basically means to fix what bugs you by shaving off 2 seconds everyday on a daily task you already do and that you are responsible for conducting in your line of work. The reason I bring this up is because if people applied this to combat I REALLY feel like these principles would be greatly beneficial to any team deployed in the field by reducing the time it takes to do anything better or faster. I would encourage any and every soldier to find the correlational between the two, that being LEAN manufacturing and war cause at the end of the day your there to manufacture death. Just fruit for thought. Cheer's Boy'z, Slava Ukraine!"
Truly ironic! Glad to see the US Army agrees. I am a former 19 Delta Cav Scout and I had know idea but then again I was in around 2008 so I'm unsure if they were applying it at the time.
Damn I miss the BDU era Army …
Correction Army guy send US tax payers money to a wasted cause.
Sounds like he intended on breaking the law to do it too.
@@GLuck-r9eand didn’t want to be audited
@@zidanesousa18- while disparaging the DoD for not passing an audit in at least 40 years. That said, 'have to break some eggs to make an omelette' might just apply here... essence of SNAFU... sucks to be a part of it - or paying for it. At the very least it's over the top... or over the target.
It was for the people of afghanistan, so they have an army, and cannot terrorize u.s no more, wheres the part that you d9nt understand, you were attack by terrorist, hiding in afghanistan, so that it wont happen again in the u.s, cut off the terrorist outside., but biden let them go.
😂😂
Very interesting. I saw this kind of stuff in Iraq also. I never thought about the idea that there aren't any Afghan war brides .... but makes you think.
Being a senior engineering project manager I can relate to the sickening sub-optimization (or status quo if you will). In big organizations (even private) they're there.
Makes me sick the the guts and genuinely angry. It actually made me somewhat political because we (the inventors, or perhaps "idealists") need to adjust, rework, strategize and beat those popes on their own turf.
But yeah, it's basic instincts those dinosaurs are working with and it helps understanding micro-macro groups and leadership psychology.
Thanks for sharing.
I thought this was the comptroller dude?:o
It is
Rehearsed suicide incase being captured 😢shit hits 🏡 home😢
"Three special forces guys, 50k each, that's a million and a half." *snap*
uhhhhhh.... 1:04:20
Your bleeping the word kill now, wow
Unfortunately it's the only way to get TH-cam to leave the videos alone. Otherwise they restrict the video and stop it from going to more people.
@@candinmuniz3225yep, it sucks but you either play by TH-cam’s rules or you may aswell not bother uploading anymore.
If you even swear in the first 1 minute of a video I’m pretty sure you’ll get demonised just off that, could be wrong but I know it’s definitely not something TH-cam likes at all.
This is basically a big trauma dump lol but ranks for your service bro, said by an Iraq vet and a guy who’s dad was in Afghanistan same time as him. We must learn from these guys so this kind of travesty never happens again.
@@brettlarson3801 in what way would serving an Afghanistan or Iraq be serving the American people they lie to our troops about Iraq and Afghanistan. They take people who wanted to defend America lie to them and use them to make America less safe.
lol ok pog
Idk what happened from a few days ago but i started this podcast and there were cuss words amd the word kill was alowed to be said. Now Its bleeped out? You cant have a military podcast and they cant say kill? Thats gonna loose me.. sorry
I have inventor DNA. I can fix my own muffler. Wtf lol.
Ladies get you a man who loves you like Mick loves himself 😂
The West made a significant error in assuming they could implement changes in Afghanistan. This resulted in 20 years of futile fighting, leading to the loss of US/NATO and allied soldiers, only to return to the initial situation with the Taliban back in power and their harsh rule nearly restored. The West (US/EU/Western nations and allies) must recognize that it is impossible to alter something that is ingrained in the very essence of existence, culture, and habits; it simply does not work, and the recent Western failure in Afghanistan is proof of that. The West cannot fight for women's rights in that society; they must reach that conclusion and fight for it themselves. The same applies to other areas of progress, such as education, agriculture, and urban development. If the Afghans themselves do not want to embrace change and continue their current way of life, the West has done nothing but waste money and fuel corruption, local tribal lords, and warlords, as well as inadvertently funding the terrorism they aimed to combat. It has been a total failure on behalf of the US, EU, NATO, and Western powers and allies.
Didn't they also leave tons and tons of military equipment behind?? The Taliban was parading all this equipment they apparently obtained when the US evacuated. It seems in essence, arming their enemies?
@@DarkOmenX you’re just making the mistake of believing them when they tell you they have the best of intentions. do you actually think they thought there was WMDs and Iraq other than the defunct non-usable ones that the United States and Britton supplied to them that they tried to cover up resulting in American soldiers being injured by them and then the VA trying to deny them, their rightful benefits.
You still believe AQ did 911 lmao
@@Billfye123 they did it with the help of the Saudi Arabian government. United States government covered up Saudi Arabia’s involvement and blamed it on Afghanistan and Iraq.
@@GLuck-r9e no they didn’t, planes were drones, there were no hijackers
Texas A & I till I die! Let’s go!!!
I listen to a lot of these and it sounds the people we are helping do not want us there?
Could've also been because we were actively destroying their country and society, idk maybe we shouldn't have treated traditional Muslim people as though they would think like soho valley chick's.
About a decade later Einstein. We all realized that when we first put boots on the ground
@@42and0studios8 if you believe, American military was there to help then you have been fooled.
I never want to sound like I’m bashing a guys story but I know ALOT of vets who came home and married a Iraqi girl and is still married happily
He didn't say Iraqi he said Afghani, BIG difference there.
@TheMattC9999 yeah seeing as how "afghani" isnt a race of people.
@@ДушманКакделаno it's a culture. As Iraqi is. Plenty of non Iraqi persians.
@@ДушманКакделаIt’s a common mistake. He meant Afghan and you know it.
@1stGenRex Afghan means nothing. It's a made up term referring to a made up country. It doesn't represent any race or culture, this thread is illustrative of why Americans got fucked in Afghanistan.
1:36:09 thank you for your sacrifice, hard work, dedication to 🇺🇸EVEN under / amongst communist, socialist leadership, 20 years & 5seconds… 🇺🇸SEMPER FI!
@@BiggusDickus-s5q so you appreciate that he served communist/socialist leadership? You do know the United States Allied Al-Qaeda again after 911. Specifically in Yemen Al-Qaeda officially joined the UAE forces were the ground forces while the United States was the Air Force. Look at Syria.
Was all that he could be, and then some..
Is this guy an innovator??
A pediatrician who believes that nonsense 😮
So basically you were rewarded for going against the grain, and orders, breaking the law, and having friends… sounds about yt
Thank u
For your service jason bourne .....
I guy and translator walk around out side the gates with a million dollars ????????? Was this before zero dark thirty ....... ?
there is a video from the russia ykraine war and the drone films a wounded soldier blowing himself up
You know, out of all of the videos/interviews ive watched over the years from this channel, and ones similar (all being really great interviews and were enjoyable from beginning to the end), but this one....this one was interestingly and intriguingly one that i honestly think was a good listen/watch and although i feel there would be possibly a few who may not feel the same as i do about this one, but i think this would place pretty high up there on my list. I really liked his honesty and his ability to be humble and not seem like he had to make himself seem like this big bad ass tough guy super soldier and instead was straight up honest about himself as he was coming up through his beginning/training of his time in the military. To things like knowing he wasnt really confident in himself in a sense to want to go to ranger school. I feel like its not a very common thing to have that be so easily/honestly talked about with many of us men. I think he made the right choices with turning ranger selection down etc anyways ive rambled on far too long
This is the first time I call BS on ANY Milatary service man
You sure about that? He gives some pretty descriptive details and has photos of his time out there. I think he's telling the truth here.
And what reasons lead you to do that?
Explain please…
viva la tortilla!
Hey did y’all know this guy is an innovator?
@@cbrooksusmc 🤣 to me he sounds like somebody that should be prosecuted and audited.
And you and the other prior military officers are the reason USAA is garbage. They don’t understand the little guy because they are up in the crystal palace. I’ve had Usaa for 15 years and will be changing soon because they are just terrible. I’ve had a house fire, a fault and a no fault accident with injury over the past five years and Usaa has made the whole experience so much worse and more stressful. In and out of the military you may see the big picture in things and are able to innovate but if it doesn’t help the little guy then that’s stuff doesn’t matter.
This man should’ve been prosecuted.
Sure when they prosecute Hillary Clinton as well.
Ha built barracks for cave men
America...back to back war losers
1:21:30 the cultural points he was making resonate with me. My question is, why did they not ask and find out what was needed and adjust from there?
Viva Italy
So if he would have went out to sea in his homemade sailboat bathtub the Afghan Army wouldn’t have failed??
@@hammertime1 🤣