The other day a guy told me he was a Navy SEAL. I asked him "What's the name of your Podcast?" He replied "I don't have one." I knew he was a phony.

I went thru dive training with him at Coronado and he was a pretty good guy, who looked out for younger noobs like myself. He had experience just being in longer and he was always there if you needed anything

Mr Ballen does not try to capitalize on his service as a SEAL. He simply acknowledges his career was very brief and he was medically retired. Nothing more, nothing less.

Can't emphasize more how important it is to have an NCO like this. Not to mention OIC. Courage is rare but moral courage is even more rare.

I'm not saying this is true or not true, but everyone here that wants to treat special forces or the military in general, like it's a sacred cow, free of criticism and immediately dismiss anything like this because it makes you uncomfortable. You should reevaluate your priorities. The hard truth is, the military has a long track record of lying and covering things up, especially dark things that should have never happened where innocents get killed as a result, even our own service members. Hell, look at the history of the. M16 rifle and why it failed in Vietnam. Read the real history on that and you'll find out it was sabotage and undermined by members of the Army ordnance department, so it would purposely fail because they favored the M14, which resulted in service members being killed in combat. That is a travesty and dark subject. And yet nobody was held account and there was plenty of covering up.. People say why are they coming out now? Because a lot of people bury this stuff deep down, but when they get older and they get more conscious about life in general, it's harder to stay quiet and people will start to speak up and speak out, especially if they feel safe in doing so. We're living in different times now with podcasts. The internet it wasn't like it was twenty years ago... My point is, everyone immediately wants to claim. It's jealousy, which is lazy and completely Incompetent, as an argument. For example, this guy doesn't have a podcast. He doesn't have social media. He doesn't have a book. He's not doing anything to make money off this. So what would be his motivation? Jealous? Gtfo. People that are passionate and feel like truth and morality needs to be exposed, are often passionate and do so not about money and yet all of these people out here that created personas around themselves have become wealthy off their narratives. But alot if these stories are looking to be false.. Funny how everyone wants to immediately try to circle the wagons and protect these people that have become celebrities off of claims and stories and immediately don't want to accept the fact that their perceived heroes might, in fact, not actually be heroes... Hell, look at the original Iwo Jima flag raising that was redone and fabricated for a photo op. Then the guys in the fake photo were paraded around the country to sell war bonds while ignoring the real men who were there. The whole thing was a lie and fabrication... That's what the movie flags of our fathers was all about. How about jessica lynch? The Army tried to prop her up as Someone that fought off Iraqi soldiers, while her comrades were hiding under the truck, only to find out it was the opposite and Jessica Lynch, herself came out and said this story being pushed, wasn't true. She turned down Book deals and a movie deal based on that narrative, because she said truth matters. But what if she hadn't? What if she went along with the pushed narrative and accepted an award and did a book and a movie? And all these years acted as if the narrative was true and then whistleblowers, later, all these years came out to tell the truth? Y'all would be sitting here saying the exact same thing... that these people are jealous and they're full of it and it happened the way they claimed it did... People need to quit acting like these communities are sacred cows and free from any criticism or investigation. And if there's any truth to any of these claims, I hope it comes out because the truth matters above all else. The only way we as a community, whether it's military or law enforcement get better, is if we're willing to hold ourselves accountable and police our own and not allow injustices and immoral behavior to be swept under the rug all in the name of protecting an image.

For those who don’t know - “Slab” is a guy named Britt Slabinski. I believe every single word of what Eric is saying. I was in the community from 2008-2015….there was so much foul shit going on - this is just one of many chapters in the book. Marcus’ twin brother is Morgan Luttrell.

Mr Ballen started out doing “seal” videos and got a lot of push back from the community, his rise was when he started non military related stuff.

Either jocko is a dirtbag or this dude is getting sued into the Stone Age

BZ, Senior. You & Ken Stethem are the only two modern-era SEAL Chiefs with the wherewithal to Honor our Core Values, even at the detriment of themselves. Good on you, brother.

Eric is by far a very honorable man, his integrity, ethics and moral compass surpasses many! Thank you for doing what’s right, speaking for those who can’t , even when you stand alone in your message and truth. I salute you sir!

Eric. Thanks for being a man of honor.

Eric sounds genuine - not looking for any financial gain for himself and simply addressing lies he has seen knowing these famous SEAL characters reputations within the community. As a former Navy service member, I always found it weird that so many people turn to Jocko for leadership when he was obviously not successful as one in the Navy. A LDCR who was sent to a non-operational command and then got out at 20 says only one thing: his career was over!

This gentleman is getting hate but I see it as he's trying to correct the wrong, I just retired from the Army and we have corruption and crookedness in a lot of places and a lot of it needs to be fixed.

This is a really important thing to be discussing. As someone who had 3 relatives in the military in various branches, I don't want the Jockos, the idiots who killed Logan Melgar, Slabinski or Szymanski anywhere near my relatives.

I almost never have free time to watch the podcast live, but I managed to do it this time, and I loved it. Lots of information and interesting discussions here, very rich conversation. I'm now watching podcasts on special operations topics for two years and would risk saying that anyone who likes that topic should listen to this episode.

Next up on the Deming files: Dan Crenshaw lost his eye in a plumming accident because he was the team janitor

Great work Eric. It will take all honorable men and women to speak up about the corruption within the SEAL community and across all of the special ops communities. Brick by brick.

I’d bet Deming is correct. Hes not polished nor is he making any money. Hes getting a lot of shit for speaking up. It’s not a performance. His message others have already been saying for a long time….. Remember Jocko is brand.

I knew some of that stuff, but this dude opened my eyes on other things. Thank you for this interview. He is a humble guy as he said and I didn't grow to his level even though, we are the same age. It seems that he is a true silent professional. I take my hat off to him.

A lot of insecure men upset their podcast daddy might not be the real deal. My advice would be to stop idol worshipping people on the internet and learn how to critically think. Provide me proof and evidence he is as great as you think (for the wanna be court room lawyers in the comments), you read his book or listened to his podcast doesn't count otherwise you have to accept Demings accounts equally

Starting At 36:45, when Eric paused, apologized for the behavior of those seals as representatives of their brotherhood, not know ing the story but showing empathy, strong morals and ethics, then the pause where you could almost see his eyes water, and his neck vein bulge with rage, hits. If you think he’s just stirring up shit; if you think he’s a liar- these are not “tells” of a liar or sociopath. These are the marks of an honorable and just man attempting to balance the scales of honor before his time passes. I said HONOR, not JUSTICE. There will never be justice. Ever. Even if all of these bad examples are criminally charged and convicted. They lost justice when the ones they killed, stepped over, ran away as a deserter, NSW looked the other way because it’s not politically or professionally advantageous to have strong moral fiber to repel “fictional events” that are marketable to both Hollywood and NSW recruiting, and eventually ALL RECRUITING. I didn’t always do the right thing in my stint in the Army. However, I didn’t get promoted for it, I didn’t get book deals, (reg infantry and PSD are super low profile, LOL) but I did have HONOR, owned my fuckups and apologized to the ones I disrespected. I’m no one special, but we can’t let these shitbags keep winning and filling up the Pentagon and creating a “perpetual shitbag generator” with promotions. It seems inevitable at this point however. It was a problem that I saw as well, when I was PSD for the “COLLEGE OF CARDINALS, I mean Generals” in Iraq, 2005, VBC. SUMMARY= Don’t be a shitbag, call them out, leave a path for them to save face, redemption and Biblical Level Repentance, and if they change for real and have the proper behaviors, welcome them back as any father should welcome back a lost son. My Two Cents. I’m nobody special. Luke SSG Army 2004-2012

This man is an American hero. We’re exposing corruption that has gone on for far too long.

I think you guys have the perfect platform to bring this guy and Jocko together in the same room on the same podcast. Unfortunately you can’t bring Chris Kyle on to defend himself. This guy accuses Jocko of murder. He needs to bring his evidence and witnesses along and talk to Jocko directly. Why is it all done this way. I mean he better have evidence, because there is a slander issue. On top of this , he knows about this murder and did not report it. I think you guys can do it. Bring them together!! Jocko needs to be able to answer to these accusations.

I believe this guy before the likes of Kyle, Luttrell or Jocko. He's got some stones for sure.

Personally, the “twin-swap” thing is a massive integrity violation and should have been treated accordingly. My .02.

By doing this, the dude has nothing to gain and a lot to lose - he will take a ton of heat for speaking up. He's already done this on a couple other podcasts. He's not writing books or trying to cash in like others have done, and he's encouraging others to come forward. There are two sides to every story so Imma listen and watch and see who has the evidence.

“Do you hate seals?” Truly one of the dumbest questions that I’ve heard. He’s telling all of this because he loves the SEAL teams.

Something seems a little bit off about Eric. Why does he seem like he's blustering and tripping over his words? I'm not a fan of Jocko, but what is Eric even saying that he thinks Jocko's books are all plagiarized? Jocko writes at a completely mediocre level - why would he need to "plagiarize" to write "GOOD" over and over? Eric dislikes Jocko based on hearsay. Cool, whatever. But why does he ruin his own position by just grabbing anything he can think of to cast Jocko in a negative light - however random and unimportant - instead of focusing on legitimate problems, if there is some truth to them?

What Eric is saying is true. I was a SEAL on the West Coast, then Dev. I had CQD on both coasts and loved it. It was the only operationally focused course for skills on target. All of our other training was how to get to target, CQD is what we did when we got there. Everybody I knew felt the same. It was indeed Szymanski and Jocko that stopped it for their own personal reasons. Don't listen to their lies.

The Lutrell brothers actually tell this story. They do not deny it.

It all comes out in the laundry. Kyle sounded more crooked then a dogs hind leg.

I was living in Aransas Pass/Port Aransas, TX, back in the late nineties and I remember there was an EOD team training down there with their dolphins. I want to say they were either Mark V or Mark VII. Anyway, I got to hang out with some of the guys and the dolphins and they even gave me a couple of their dark green and desert beige team t-shirts. That was a great experience and those guys were phenomenal and super professional.

Wait, if the story about Marcus letting his twin brother fill in for 4 days is true, You said that's not a big deal to you per se? That is a massive ethics violation. What is wrong with you?

Serious accusations about Jocko. I can’t put my finger on it but I’ve always felt Jocko wasn’t totally on the up&up. Not necessarily about these accusations because I couldn’t put my finger on it. I’ve just always felt he wasn’t what he portrayed himself to be. Not to mention he just regurgitates stuff that’s been around for forever. He just has the look and sound and was a Seal so people listen. In the end we all won’t ever know the truth, unless there is some serious proof that comes out. It’s just going to be who ever you believe and like more. Jocko fanboys will never believe it and Jocko haters will believe it, so 🤷🏻‍♂️. In the end I have no problems with vets calling out vets. It’s the only way all these vets are going to stop lying about their service and all that goes with that. Otherwise not only will it keep happening but it will get worse and worse. Especially when big $$$ is involved.

The SEAL story that has really just blown my mind and just freakin insane. Is the SEAL guys that were using opp money for hookers and drugs and when they were found out by this dude and he told them hey either stop it or I'm turning you in . They decide to try and set him up on some gay sex video and he ends up saying F U and fighting them and they end up choking dude out and killing him. Than took a broom and SA'd him with the broom I guess to try and make it look like he was taking it in the hieney alot. Than they tried to cover it up by cutting a tracheotomy. But in the autopsy dudes hypiod bone was completely crushed. These 2 dudes completely got off of all charges I think 1 dude maybe served a year for this. It's the craziest story cover up whatever you want to call it. But I just can't believe dudes got off of this murder. RLTW 3/75

Respect to Eric Deming for his integrity and having brass ones.

Excellent episode! Thanks, guys!! Eric -- best of luck to you, American. ✊

The story about Morgan & Marcus Luttrell trading places is well-known. Morgan has talked about it on other podcasts. Marcus also got medically rolled back shortly after. According to Morgan, that story was revealed on "Amnesty Night." Marcus had to go to an impromptu Admiral's Mast just to tell the story. When all was said and done, their leadership was more impressed with the fact they pulled it off.

At first I was thinking this dude was full of shit and jealous but the lack of response by them I think he might be telling the truth.

I always had a hunch that Marcus was a fraud. He has that face. Know what I mean

Is he referring to Shawn Ryan when he said he was a Found Religion drug dealer? Shawn Ryan recently shared on Meghan Kelley that he was involved with columbin coke dealers after the CIA.

Huge respect to any man who can pass Buds .. 👏 well done warrior

I have been talking about the Luttrell twin trick that he used to cheat since I first heard him admit it on Sean Ryan's podcast. It's the episode with O'Neil, Luttrell, Sean Ryan, and one other seal I think.

Now I understand why NCIS has been going so hard against the SEALs.

When you said this episode was going to be spicy was not expecting this spicy 🌶️. Fantastic journalism guys.

thank you eric. what you are doing is very important and i really appreciate it.

Been looking forward to Eric being on the team house because of them asking the right questions to get clarification. Hoping other seals will eventually come out soon. If the seals were men of integrity they'd back him up. Life is too short and you have to stand up to what is right.

Eric is the man

No time stamps????

When is the pred feed of Marcus going to come out? That will be the true way to tell who is being truthful.

Great podcast

Overall, Erics intentions are on the side of good, you don’t have to agree or align with everything he claims, but his overall goal is just about obtaining accountability for the NSW community. Its ok to still admire Jocko and still see that there are issues inside the SEAL team culture. I see alot of people demanding “evidence” of Ericks claims and accusations, but how many people demanded evidence and context when Chris Kyle or Marcus Lutrell, Rob O’Neil or Brit Slabinkinski went Public about their accolades? It works both ways.

I can really relate to, training and experience allows you take that extra time, in a shoot, no shoot scenerio. I'm a retired cop and former Iraq contracter. You have little flags pop up telling you what to do in very hectic situations. This guy knows what he's talking about.

There was a guy in Kyle’s book nicknamed “Runaway” …. could this be that gentleman?

Its bad leadership, Poor moral compasses, and human nature that causes all of these clown shows. Sadly it ends up costing good people their lives. Id love to see Jesse The Body Ventura and Eric do a podcast. Also DJ Shipley and Don Shipley need to sit down and do a podcast together. Maybe one day the Team House can facilitate that. God Bless 🙏

One thing I didn’t like was Eric said “Marcus ran, if there was another solid team guy up there things could’ve been different” that was an insult to the 3 SEALs that died.

One thing that set off alarm bells about this guy for me is when he said something to the effect of “every time I see jockos podcast online or any jocko interviews, I think cha-Ching cha-Ching”. First thing he thinks of is how much money jocko is making ? He seems jealous. Obviously I wasn’t in Ramadi with SEAL team 3 but jocko has had marines on his podcast. Dave Berke is a marine, Dave and jocko are great friends and co workers. I think this dude is jealous of Jockos money and popularity

His story gives specifics of events covered in Code Over Country.

This dude is the katt williams of special operations

I've listened to both sides of the story and I don't buy yours

This guy is such a joke and honestly for him to just bash on other seals makes me wonder what he was like as a seal

I’ve listened to a ton of Jocko Podcast episodes over the years. He has repeatedly stated that combat requires the will to kill - not only the enemy, but friendly forces and civilians as well. He always puts in the caveat that the killing of friendlies and civilians is accidental, not intentional. He’s repeatedly talked about how he did not brief his guys comprehensively on the ROE, but instead summarized them. One of his guys was on, talking about how he did not shoot a kid who was not clearly a hostile but fell within the Jocko explained version of the ROEs. According to the guy, Seth Stone gave him a look of disgust that made the guy feel guilty for not shooting the kid, and how he did not make that same “mistake” again.

My problem with this guy is he present 2nd or 3rd hand hearsay as fact, but only admits it’s hearsay when he’s pressed on it. Like the Jocko court martial thing. When he was pressed he admitted he just heard that. He mixes those types of accusations with known facts of incidents that have happened..Ruby Ridge…etc. know he may be right, but if you are going to make those types of accusations you need to bring evidence. In short, I don’t trust anyone that presents hearsay as fact and only admits it when pressed. I might as well sit around and listen to a bunch of old women gossip which is basically what it sounds like when folks from the military community go after each other.

Can you timestamp your interviews..?

Thanks for your service I have been lucky enough to work with UDT SEAMAN FIRST CLASS in the Korean War Michael Kidd! Great stories!

If what this guy says is true about Jocko, he has tremendous honour and courage for coming out like this. Does anyone know what Don Shipley said about him?

Great interview

Whistleblower is a bit of a stretch. He made accusations that are damning if true. But he needs to lay out the physical evidence. Hearsay doesn’t count.

If you look at the Ed Darak interviews, and even take a peak at some of the old school SOFREP with Ed in them. he never mentioned a SA7 being responsible for the redwings shoot down or extortion 17. I find it interesting that multiple people have come out and in the past about redwings (Matthew Cole, Matt Cubbler and Eric). The information these three specially have realized is amazing. Because they have sources. If you look at the Matt Cubbler & Rob O’Neil podcast. You can tell Robb was shocked by the information Cubbler knew. But Ed Darak has not mentioned an SA7 at all from my research. And he has written some GREAT content on Redwings and Extortion 17 shootdown. One thing that shocked me was on the Antihero podcast he mentioned Axe was still alive. My questions personally are- 1. how many enemies did they kill? If you watch the released Redwings Video you can make out roughly 7-8 of Shas guys. Ed Darak puts the total Number of guys is 7-8 max. 2. How far were they ambushed from compared to the shoot down of turbine 33? If you watch the video, someone on KZfaq translated while they were searching the body of Murphy, one of the guys comments they already shot down 1 helicopter. Also multiple rangers have done interviews/podcast stating that during the recovery they found no trace of 200+ people let alone a firefight like that. And the picture of luttrell during the rescue, seemed like he didn’t crawl 20 miles like he said.

CQD WAS A CLOWN COURSE!! Duane Dieter has no military or LE background. The system taught this silly ass ninja chop while standing in this goofy stance. Total BS!

My friend Perry Officer 2nd Class Edward Austin Koth and he was in the infamous buds class 234. He was only on episode 2 and 5. He quit Monday of hell week. He went on to become a naval EOD and swam with dolphins. He was killed July 26, 2006. If any of his military buddies are reading this I would love to hear from you. I really miss him and he was a great guy. His mother was my religion teacher junior year of high school. Austin and I both went Loyola College after going to the same high school. Austin was an E6 I believe. I could be wrong. Thanks in advance for anyone who reaches out to me. Cheers my friends.

Great Interview... ty.

Jocko has always given me bad vibes

I've heard Eric Deming a couple times. My first impression was he seemed like a genuine whistleblower. After listening to him on The Team House, now he sounds like a guy that's pissed because Jocko ETAL replaced his baby - Duane Dieters CQD - with BJJ as the official NSW combative technique. You suppose that switch might have cost Deming a hoped for GS-12 retirement job directing the now defunct CQD center at NSW. Seems possible. Yeah, so for me he went from noble whistleblower to disgruntled Chief.

I heard Deteir did Psych evaluation too. Which latter on after he was gone NSW looked at the ones he said would not do well and that was the ones NSW had trouble with.

Willink would never sue demming for defamation because during the discovery phase of the case a lot of jockos stuff will come out. Its the last thing he would want

Great interview as usual guys. It would be great if you guys could get him and jocko together on your show to hash this out. I think that’s the only way to really get to the bottom of it. Whoever declines the offer will give us our answer.

There's always a link to something in the description, but no description of the video. It's really frustrating...

Excellent podcast men, tough subject handled professionally. Shout out to you Ranger buddy, miss ya! RLTW

Respectfully disagree with Eric’s take on dieters Cqd course. Most of the hand to hand and knife training was in effective and not applicable in a kinetic environment. Most TGs were already training mma on their free time and when the opportunity to pivot toward a mmm centric combatives curriculum they made it clear what they felt would be most effective. Anyone who is curious go to KZfaq and watch the 90s cqb hand to hand training and then watch marine martial art program or army combstives.

Amazing episode Gents!

This is the guy that yells out "Ay smokey over here taking a shit"!!! 😂

This mostly comes across as an old school martial arts dispute about who is the best. Lots of accusations and not very much substance.

Im an Army guy and appreciate what these men go through for us. I hope they can iron out their differences in private. I would hate to see things like fame, money, or jealousy destroy our most elite fighting force. God Bless America 🇺🇸

Who was the leadership above Tim Szymanski? Who was his rabbi and why ?

Think about all this attention the Special Operations community is getting years after. After countless books, movies, and interviews pushed to the public. If this stuff was going on with America's elite fighting force, god only knows what went down in the conventional forces.

When I was in Corps school out of Great Lakes, this one dude jumped in the cold lake. It was Patstone who went to Buds after and eventually became an instructor Patsone at Buds. He was on the Discovery channel when class 234 went through. Now he is a ghost. My point is Navy Seals were typically the low key professional operator which is what made this career path so interesting. Now they all seem to have podcasts and capitalizing on being in the teams.

Deming probably has some good information, but he needs to take time and learn how to speak and organize his thoughts. Not just for content for the sake of not getting sued. He’s all over the place, goes off on tangents and shares a lot of heresy.

TUB TGs that stand with Jocko: Leif, JP, Jimmy, Doug, Jeremy, BTF, Bob, Kaui, Jonny Kim, Lacz, Alex. Those are just the ones who are publicly standing with him. I don’t understand Eric’s issue with Jocko. All he keeps talking about is this outdated cqb course that was run by his buddy and he seems upset that NSW decided to pivot toward a more mma centric combatives course based on positive experiences the marines and army sof units had with their updated training. A lot of the IADs taught in the 90s and early 2000s were scrapped as soon as guys came back from deployment in 02-04. Those early TTPs were Vietnam era tactics that were completely useless in urban environments. I won’t speak toward the luttrell or Slab rumors but regarding Jocko his men back him. The mere fact he called Jocko a coward speaks volumes about his personal bias. Jocko is not a perfect person, seal, leader etc. However he is not a freaking coward.

I don’t know where I fall on this but I trust my gut. Something just isn’t right with this guy

Imagine what we could accomplish if we didnt eat our own..

It reminds me of the book "Ordinary Men" where the moral lines get m oved and moved and the group goes with it. The book is a tough read by the way.

It’s a lot of stream of consciousness. He needs to organize his thoughts and present his positions in a better way

Great stuff!

I'm currently deployed on operation redwings. Hopefully just two days left. My wife's 45 so hopefully these operations will cease in the near future.

This hurts my soul. I love and respect the military. The SF guys are the best of the best!! But I don’t like lying. You guys are way better than that. Americans can handle the truth or a bad decision. Shit happens in the moment. Just be honest. Your window of forgiveness is huge. Thank you for the honesty!!

I wasn't expecting much when i started listening to this episode. I figured this guy was just another bitching sailor. However, after listening to him, I gotta say he seems like a stand up guy. I'm glad i listened to him and i wish him well.

Thank you for bringing this information to light. I’ve been subscribed to Joco’ channel for about a year and have always felt that there was something a bit fishy about him. I just unsubscribe from his channel. Thank you for bringing this to light.

I truly don't understand his distaste for steroids

This dude was really mad that they canceled his karate class